A prominent social media employee of the Reuters news service was indicted on Thursday for allegedly conspiring with the notorious hacker group Anonymous to infiltrate the Los Angeles Times website and make changes to a web story.
Matthew Keys, 26, is accused of conspiring with Anonymous in December 2010, about two months after he was terminated from his job as a web producer for a Tribune-owned television station in Sacramento, Calif., the Justice Department said.
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If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison.
Keys allegedly identified himself as a former Tribune employee on an Internet chat forum and then gave Anonymous members the login and password information to the company’s server. The Justice Department says he also encouraged the hackers to disrupt the company’s website.
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When he learned that a story by the Tribune-owned L.A. Times had been defaced, the Justice Department said he allegedly responded, “nice.”
Keys, a resident of Secaucus, N.J., was charged in the Eastern District of California with one count of conspiracy to transmit information to damage a protected computer, a count of transmitting that information and a count of attempted transmission.
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Along with the 10-year prison term, he also faces up to three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine for each of the three counts.
A Reuters spokesperson said the company is looking into the matter.
"The indictment alleges the conduct occurred in December 2010, which is more than one year before Mr. Keys joined Reuters," the spokesperson said. "We are reviewing the matter."
A spokesman for Tribune Co. declined to comment. Keys could not immediately be reached.
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