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Journalist Matthew Keys Sentenced To 24-Month Prison Term For Helping Anonymous (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the prison-sentence dept.

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.

13 of 99 comments (clear)

  1. Lucky by amiga3D · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'm surprised given the general attitude today that he got off so light. It's getting so this kind of thing is treated like terrorism or something similar by the authorities.

    1. Re:Lucky by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Light? He's going to federal prison for 2 years because he gave someone a password!

      If you give someone the key to your neighbor's house (which you have as a trustworthy neighbor) and the guy you give the key to goes inside and takes a shit on their carpet, I don't think you'd be looking at 2 years in prison. But this is "on a computer" so holy shit, better give him federal PMITA prison time... What a crock.

  2. Justice by headkase · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

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    Shh.
    1. Re:Justice by headkase · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

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      Shh.
    2. Re:Justice by bloodhawk · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

    3. Re:Justice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Seriously? The guy turned over credentials to login, far more than just defacing a website could have occurred.

      Consider it this way, how would you feel if someone gave the keys to your house to a bunch of kids who went in and spray painted graffiti on the walls of your house? Would you just go 'O that's no big deal, give them a $100 fine & we'll forget about it'...or would you feel EXTREMELY pissed off, violated (someone went in to your house without authorization and COULD have stolen anything) and want some kind of 'justice'? Would 2 years be sufficient jail time for you to get your justice?

      There definitely are 'disproportionate sentences' for crimes conducted on a computer versus if not done on a computer...this was not one of them. Learn to distinguish before you share your 'outrage at the government'.

    4. Re:Justice by headkase · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "What if he had.." He didn't. If he did that would have been a different trial.

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      Shh.
    5. Re:Justice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No, his crime was to provide access to his former employer's cms so that some hacker would go and, using Keys words, "go fuck some shit up". The fact the website was only defaced for 40 minutes is immaterial to Keys actions and intent. In the transcript of the IRC chat, he was disappointed at the extent of the hacker's vandalism.

    6. Re:Justice by headkase · · Score: 3, Interesting

      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.

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      Shh.
    7. Re:Justice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      He gave out the credentials, at which point he made it so they could have done anything, he was lucky the damage done was minor but should be punished according to what he did not what he got lucky with.

    8. Re:Justice by zabbey · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If only there were a way he could have avoided voluntarily giving his credentials to a random internet organization.

    9. Re:Justice by JesseEnjaian · · Score: 3, Interesting

      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.

  3. Journalist Matthew Keys says he didn’t do it by khz6955 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "Keys .. denies the actions that he was accused of and has vowed to appeal the case to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, a process that likely will last a year or more .. He continues to maintain that the FBI is punishing him for his journalistic work of investigating the Anonymous collective and for not cooperating with the FBI when they contacted him in April 2011." ref