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Journalist Matthew Keys Sentenced To 24-Month Prison Term For Helping Anonymous (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The former Reuters journalist convicted last year for aiding the hacker group Anonymous has been sentenced to 24 months in prison today. Matthew Keys faced up to a possible 25 years for three counts of hacking. Keys will be on supervised release and he is set to surrender on June 15th. In October 2015, Keys was found guilty for violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act when he provided website login credentials to The Los Angeles Times, a Tribune Media-owned newspaper. In the past, he's worked for a companion Tribune property, KTXL Fox 40 in Sacramento, California, which gave him possession of the login information to the join content management system. As a result, Anonymous members altered one story on the Los Angeles Times website. He then went to work for Reuters, where he was fired from his position as social media editor after charges were filed in March 2013.
His "crime" was the equivalent of spraying graffiti on a wall - if the conviction was actually true. Two years in PITA for a headline that lasted 40 minutes? Just "because it's done on a computer" does not automatically turn what should be a $100 fine into 730 possible days to be raped.
Shh.
While I agree his crime was relatively minor in its consequences this time it most definitely isn't just like graffiti on a wall, high profile publications have the ability to affect stock markets, companies, cause panic with various fake news and various other really bad situations just from misplaced words. Imagine they published an article that said google execs have been arrested for security fraud as they have been misrepresenting the companies financial position for the last 4 years where they have actually been making a loss instead of a profit, you would see a rapid dumping of shares. While that is more an extreme example more subtle articles can have major market impacts.
The punishment should fit the crime, his trial should have been based on the actual events and not some nebulous "possibilities." In general, the USA has been leaning more and more to an authoritarian stance. Don't you think that the pendulum should swing back towards the middle a bit? After all, prisons are all sitting at three times capacity now. That's not a problem though. It was a non-violent crime that resulted in a petty defacement and that is what should have been judged.
Shh.
Is the summery correct that were old cred to a place he used to work at? If so the times has nobody to blame but themselves.
No sir I dont like it.
It's a security weakness to give people credentials to access something they're supposed to access? What security protocol do you propose to stop people you want to have access to data from accessing the data while still being able to access the data?
He was no longer working for the TV station when he shared the password with Anonymous. Either everyone at the company was using the same credentials, or they didn't revoke his personal account when he terminated; poor practice either way.
Disproportionate sentences like this don't enamor people to their government, or to put it another way "unjust laws serve to bring all law into contempt." The United States of Amerika indeed where the slightest act is met with ridiculous punishment. No wonder per capita the land of the free imprisons the most people in the world.
2 years is the minimum sentence for a CFAA conviction. The judge was as lenient as he/she could be.