Some weekend stories about indicted Reuters social media editor Matthew Keys:
• Matthew Keys’ alleged alliance with Anonymous hackers “is sort of an undercover-type, investigative journalism thing,” his attorney Jay Leiderman told The Huffington Post.
“It looks like the government is essentially indicting a reporter under the [Computer Fraud and Abuse Act] for writing about Anonymous,” his other attorney Tor Ekeland said.
If you’re interested in the layout of Keys’ apartment, the attached FBI search warrant includes a diagram.
• Ekeland recently tweeted that Anonymous hacker-turned-FBI informant Hector Xavier Monsegur, a.k.a. “Sabu” “is quite the snitch, isn’t he?” Sara Morrison reports:
Sabu is quite the snitch, isn’t he? rt.com/usa/lulzsec-sn…
— Tor Ekeland, P.C. (@TorEkelandPC) March 15, 2013
Leiderman, Morrison notes, said Sabu had a “really malignant heart” in an interview last October.
• “No one was hurt, there were no lasting injuries, no one’s identify was stolen, lives weren’t ruined,” Leiderman said in an interview with the Associated Press. “It was a joke, and I guess a joke will get you 25 years in prison.”
• Keys’ story “appears to be a tale of payback, counter-payback and perhaps naivete by a young man considered a rising star in the new-media world,” Paul Farhi writes. One colleague and friend of Keys tels Farhi he “can be very brash and cocky at times, and he’s very young, so anything is possible.”
One theory about the allegations, he said, is that Keys turned over his password to the Anonymous hacker to curry favor with the group in hopes of making a name for himself by covering it. He added: “That might be wishful thinking on some people’s part who don’t want to contemplate the possibility that he’s just a disgruntled former employee.”
• Keys was indicted under “the same act under which Aaron Swartz was charged,” Justin Peters writes. “The trouble with our current computer laws is that they are so ridiculously vague that they can be used to justify garbage charges like these.”
• Keys has posted several public updates on Facebook since the indictment, including one about how he can’t find his iPad and another correcting reports that he had been arrested in conjunction with the indictment.
I have never been arrested in connection with this case. I have never been arrested in my life. An indictment is not an arrest.
Previously: Reuters suspends Matthew Keys | Reuters social media editor indicted for allegedly aiding Anonymous in hacking
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