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Matthew Keys, 26, was charged on March 14 with one count ofconspiracy to cause damage to a protected computer, one count oftransmission of malicious code and one count of attemptedtransmission of malicious code. The Department of Justice claimsthat, after being terminated from his role as web producer forSacramento-based television station KTXL FOX 40 in October 2010,Keys supplied members of the hacktivist collective Anonymous withcredentials that were used to log-on to the network’s parentcorporation, the Tribune Company.According to the complaint [.pdf], Keys told a participant in anAnonymous-affiliated chat room in December 2010 that he was aformer employee of the Tribune Company and that hackers should“go fuck some shit up” after he shared sensitive log-incredentials. If convicted, he could face 25 years in prison andfines totaling a quarter of a million dollars.Attorneys for Keys have been speaking out in support of theirclient starting only hours after the indictment was announced. Onlyon Wednesday, however, did the defendant publically deny thecharges for the first time.“I did not give a username and a password to anyone. I didnot ‘conspire’ to ‘cause damage to a protected computer.’ I did notcause ‘transmission of malicious code,’ and I did not ‘attempt’ tocause ‘transmission of malicious code,’” he wrote Wednesday ona Facebook page that he also directed his 25,000 Twitter followers to.“My attorneys have said much of the same over the past fewdays, but I feel it might mean more coming from me directly,”Keys concluded.Keys is the latest in a series of Americans charged under theComputer Fraud and Abuse Act, or CFAA, following the solemnfootsteps of hacker Jeremy Hammond — who has been awaiting trial for overa year now from a New York City jail cell — and Aaron Swartz, an information activist that committedsuicide in January before his own CFAA case could go to trial. Asrecently as Monday, Andrew “weev” Auernheimer was sentenced to 41 months in prisonfor accessing a protected computer, and now the Electronic FrontierFoundation is representing his attempt to appeal.Unlike other recent cases, though, Keys is not a computer-savvyso-called hacker. While he may be the latest victim of the CFAA,he’s spent the last year as an editor for international newswireReuters, and during that time wrote openly about the Anonymousmovement and what his attorneys call his undercover workinfiltrating the group.“He was in the chat room just to do a story,” attorneyJay Leiderman told Forbes last week.When Anonymous’ alleged ringleader, Hector “Sabu” Monsegur, wasrevealed to be a federal informant last year, Keyswrote in a Reuters blog post that he had interacted with theelusive hacker before he apparently became an FBI turncoat.“In late December 2010, Sabu confided in me some personaldetails. He said he was a single, unemployed foster father of twochildren, and was living on government assistance,” Keys wrotein March 2012, all allegations that were confirmed shortly afterMonsegur’s identity was revealed earlier that week.Keys went on to write about chatting with other well-knownmembers of Anonymous, including agents of the offshoot LulzSec thathave since been charged with a slew of hacking-related crimes. Inhis March 2012 blog post, Keys acknowledged that he saw a rift inLulzSec appear during his investigation, even writing that the LATimes hack was waged “without collective approval” whentensions were tough within the group.The defacement, which was live for roughly 30 minutes, involvedaltering a Times headline to read, “Pressure builds in House toelect CHIPPY 1337,” a reference to another hacking group.Prosecutors say Keys knew much more than what he blogged about,though, and attest that he conspired with the group — albeitbriefly — to perhaps seek revenge against his former employers.“Keys allegedly encouraged the Anonymous members to disruptthe website,” last week’s Justice Department statement reads. Keys, on the other hand, says he hadnothing to do with the defacement.“I identified myself as a journalist during my interactionwith top-level Anonymous hackers and at no time did I offer saidindividuals any agreement of confidentiality,” Keys explained in a March 2011 post on hispersonal website — three months after the LA Times defacementappeared.But even before Keys was under investigation, he was named asthe culprit behind the hack. In Parmy Olson’s 2012 book We AreAnonymous, she writes, “Sabu later claimed that Keys had givenaway administrator access to the online publishing system ofTribune, his former employer, in return for the chance to ‘hang outin our channel,’” a claim denied by the journalist. Sabu alsotweeted that allegation in March  2011,and is not believed to have assisted the feds until his arrest inJune of that year.In assisting with her book, however, Keys did supply Olson witha series of chat logs in which he talked openly with the groupusing the screen name AESCracked. According to the federalindictment, chat room patron AESCracked offered a hacker with thealias “sharpie” access to the LA Times website after the initialdefacement, and discussed further hacks against his formeremployer.Keys is also being represented by Tor Ekeland, the attorney whounsuccessfully defended Mr. Auernheimer during the CFAA trial thatculminated with Monday’s sentencing hearing in Newark, New Jersey.Meanwhile, the Justice Department confirmed last month thatMonsegur is continuing to cooperate with theFBI’s investigation into the Anonymous movement. Monsegur pleadedguilty in 2011, and could face 124 years in prison if eversentenced. So far, however, his sentencing hearings have beendelayed for nearly two years while he continues to assist theauthorities. … Read More