Posted on 10/07/2015 4:56:59 PM PDT by Citizen Zed
On Wednesday, a jury in Sacramento, California, found Matthew Keys, former social media editor at Reuters and an ex-employee of KTXL Fox 40, guilty of computer hacking under the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act.
In 2010, Keys posted login credentials to the Tribune Company content management system (CMS) to a chatroom run by Anonymous, resulting in the defacement of an LA Times article online. The defacement was reversed in 40 minutes, but the government argued the attack caused nearly a million dollars in damage.
“The government wanted to send a clear message that if you want to cover a group they don’t agree with, and you’re not complicit with them [the government], they will target you,” Keys told me after the trial.
When asked about claims that the prosecution was politically motivated, Assistant US Attorney Matt Segal replied, "I don't know what Keys's political beliefs are."
Keys was found guilty on all three counts he was charged with: conspiracy to commit computer hacking, transmission of malicious code causing unauthorized damage to a protected computer, and attempting to transmit malicious code to cause unauthorized damage to a protected computer. (The specific provisions of the CFAA are listed at the end of this article.)
The statutory maximum for Keys's crimes is 25 years, but in a statement given after the trial, a spokesperson for the US Attorneys Office said Keys would likely face less than five years.
"While it has not been determined what the government will be asking the court for, it will likely be less than 5 years," the spokesperson said.
"This is not the crime of the century," Segal said, adding that nonetheless Keys should not get away with his acts. At minimum, he may receive probation. Sentencing is scheduled for January 20, 2016.
(Excerpt) Read more at motherboard.vice.com ...
I guess so......words are now malicious code...
I thought hacking involved a bit more than posting your password on a forum.
It’s a misconception that all hacking involves some complicated programming and technical tricks to compromise systems. One of the most common forms of hacking is “social engineering”, which is basically just conning people into giving you passwords, or other information that can be used to get into a system without all the rigamarole.
For example, if I wanted to hack a company’s network, I might call their phone system and dial random extensions. When someone answered, I would pretend to be a fellow employee, perhaps in the IT department, who had detected that they contracted a computer virus which was sending out spam from their email. Then I’d walk them through checking a few things on their machine, to give them a false sense of security that I was actually there to help, and finally, I’d say “I’m going to have to do a remote access here to fix the issue, what’s your password?”
Obviously that won’t work all the time, but it does work surprisingly often.
“In 2010, Keys posted login credentials to the Tribune Company content management system (CMS) to a chatroom run by Anonymous, resulting in the defacement of an LA Times article online.”
I would say that is a little more than just tweeting innocent comment.
Sure there is......but the law used to cite him was as I said....
It then becomes a precedent..
It’s not that I agree in any way with what he did.
It’s patently obvious he should have been prosecuted, but they used law not intended for the posting of a password or login credential. Now it’s on the books....no telling where it goes from here..
It’s why our legal and judicial system is so screwed...It’s why Scotus was able to do what they did insofar as gay marriage rights..
It’s how they bastardize law..
It’s far better to allow someone to skate then to bastardize the law in order to punish them. The correct way would have been to pass a law in the legislature or congress if federal, and catch the next one.
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