The Internet Law You've Already Broken
This week on Reply All, the law that Matthew Keys will be sentenced under: why many people hate it, why prosecutors love it, and why maybe, just maybe, you should be afraid of it.
A couple of weeks ago, a Sacramento jury convicted journalist Matthew Keys of helping Anonymous hack the website of the LA Times. Prosecutors have said they will seek jail time — likely less than five years. But the reason you should care about Matthew Keys is because the law he was charged under — The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act — makes all kinds of computer usage illegal. Including the kinds of things you do every day, from using someone else's Netflix password to not using your real name on Facebook.
Matthew Keys is a reporter who is probably best known for his Twitter presence — during breaking news stories, he frequently hops in and becomes a valuable source of on-the-ground information, by amplifying news outlets and individuals who are actually reporting from the scene.
Back in 2010, he worked as a web producer for FOX 40. FOX 40 is a television station in Sacramento, which owned by The Tribune Company. The Tribune Company is, of course, a huge media company that owns several of other TV stations and newspapers. Keys was fired from that job in October of that year. He says he quit. He was not happy with his dismissal or departure, and not long after he left, the television station started receiving emails from X-Files characters. The emails had this air of menace to them that was just unsettling enough that the staff of FOX 40 contacted the FBI.
The Authorities say that these emails came from Keys. But these emails were just a warm up. In December of 2010, Matthew Keys goes Nuclear. You see, Keys still has user credentials to access the Tribune Company's Content Management System, which is where they post all the content that appears on their websites. And Keys drops those user credentials into a chatroom of Anonymous hackers.
A hacker called Sharpie takes Keys up on his offer. Sharpie changes the headline of an LA Times article about a tax bill so that is says, "Pressure Builds in House to Elect Chippy1337."
And that's it. It's possibly the most meaningless hack in the history of time, not to mention really short-lived. The fake headline was only up for about 40 minutes, and it's very likely no one even saw it.
So if that's all that happened, why is Keys facing years of jail time? This week on Reply All, the law that Matthew Keys will be sentenced under: why many people hate it, why prosecutors love it, and why maybe, just maybe, you should be afraid of it.
Subscribe to Reply All on iTunes or with your favorite podcaster, visit our website or just listen on Soundcloud.
You can also subscribe to Reply All's RSS here.
