An online social media editor for the Reuters news agency has been indicted for allegedly helping members of Anonymous hack another media organization's network.
The editor was outed by the prominent former member of Anonymous known as Sabu who became a snitch for the FBI following his own arrest last year.
Matthew Keys, a 26-year-old deputy social media editor for Reuters in New York, allegedly provided log-in credentials for a server owned by the Tribune Company, his former employer, and encouraged members of Anonymous to use the credentials to "go fuck some shit up."
According to the indictment (.pdf), Keys, who used the Twitter handle @ProducerMatthew, had been working as a web producer for television station KTXL FOX 40 in Sacramento, which is owned by the Tribune Company, when he lost his job in late October 2010.
Two months later, he was in an online chat forum frequented by people affiliated with Anonymous where, using the online nickname "AESCracked," he identified himself as former Tribune Company employee and handed over a username and password for his former employer's server.
A hacker who used the name "Sharpie" then used the credentials to access a Tribune Company server and alter a Los Angeles Times news story published online Dec. 14, 2010. The Los Angeles Times is also owned by the Tribune Company.
When Sharpie told Keys what he'd done, Keys allegedly replied "nice," according to the indictment.
The headline of the story was changed from "Pressure builds in House to pass tax-cut package" to read "Pressure builds in House to elect CHIPPY 1337." The deck of the story was changed from "reluctant House Democrats are feeling the heat to pass it," to "House Democrats told to SUCK IT UP." The author byline was also changed from Lisa Mascaro to "Chippy's no. 1 Fan."
An image of the hacked story was published on Reddit in 2011.
Sharpie told Keys that system administrators then disabled the credentials and locked him out, after which Keys allegedly tried to regain access for the hacker but couldn't.
"I'm locked out for good," Keys allegedly wrote. ":(."
In March 2011, Keys served as a source for a piece that was published by Gawker about Anonymous. Gawker described him as "a journalist who infiltrated" Anonymous and provided the web site with a number of screengrabs from #InternetFeds, an invitation-only chat room that high-ranking members of Anonymous used.
Keys wrote on his Tumblr page at the time that he "provided Gawker with just one of dozens of logs that were taken during my two-month access to top level hackers within Anonymous. In addition to providing Gawker with one log, I provided the PBS NewsHour with a record back in December."
He went on to say that he identified myself as a journalist "during my interaction with the top-level Anonymous hackers and at no time did I offer said individuals any agreement of confidentiality. In fact, I asked several of them for their feelings should they be exposed. They seemed, by and large, indifferent."
Keys, subsequently exposed himself by one of the former members in that chat room, was charged in the Eastern District of California with three counts -- including conspiracy and the transmission of data to damage a computer. If convicted on all charges he could face a statutory maximum of 25 years in prison and fines up to $750,000 -- though a more likely sentence under federal sentencing guidelines would be up to six months in jail, assuming minimal financial losses by the victims and no prior criminal history by the defendant.
*Home Page Photo:sinsistema / Flickr *
Update 11.4.13: To remove a statement saying that Hector Xavier Monsegur used the Sharpie pseudonym. Although a source told USA Today that Monsegur used the pseudonym, that information has been disputed.
