Alleged Media Hacker Looking at Hard Time

SACRAMENTO (CN) - A Reuters social media editor is charged with conspiring with the "Anonymous" group to hack into and alter a Tribune website, federal prosecutors said.

The charges against Matthey Keys, 26, of Secaucus, N.J., involves conduct he allegedly committed while working for a Tribune TV station. Prosecutors say Keys gave Anonymous log-in credentials for KTXL FOX 40 in Sacramento.

He encouraged the group to disrupt the site, and "ultimately that hacker made changes to the web version of a Los Angeles Times news feature," the U.S. Attorney's Office said Thursday.

Keys worked for KTXL FOX as its web producer until he was "terminated" in October 2010, prosecutors said in the statement.

He was charged with conspiring to transmit information to damage a protected computer, transmitting information to damage a protected computer and attempted transmission of information to damage a protected computer.

If convicted of all charges, Keys faces up to 25 years in prison and $750,000 in fines.

Prosecutors said in the statement: " The indictment further alleges that Keys had a conversation with the hacker who claimed credit for the defacement of the Los Angeles Times website. The hacker allegedly told Keys that Tribune Company system administrators had thwarted his efforts and locked him out. Keys allegedly attempted to regain access for that hacker, and when he learned that the hacker had made changes to a Los Angeles Times page, Keys responded, 'nice.'"

It has been reported that some think FBI informant Hector Monsegur, a hacker known online as Sabu who led a group called LulzSec, gave authorities the goods on Keys.

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