3 ms·
it does seem strange that this case is so big and the charges against him so large. Because he was caught up in the Feds surveillance of Anonymous. It is at l
by jccc 11y ago
it does seem strange that this case is so big and the charges against him so large.
Because he was caught up in the Feds surveillance of Anonymous.
It is at least worth noting that Keys says it wasn't him. FTA:
-----
“Let’s be clear: I never passed a username or password to Anonymous,” he said.
Keys, who went on to serve as deputy social media editor for Reuters before his indictment in 2013, said he was investigating Anonymous in chatrooms when his username was used without his permission by parties unknown. Five years ago, Anonymous was in the news for its attacks on Visa and PayPal — and, according to Keys, he was just doing his job.
“It occurred to me that no one had looked into these guys,” he said. “They were talking at a level above my head. … Anybody could co-opt [the username] and it looks like in this case somebody did.”
Keys said the Tribune company — by then his former employer to whom he nonetheless pitched his story about Anonymous — should have supported him. This was about freedom of the press, not passwords.
“Tribune Media – what are they thinking?” he said. “Do they care about journalism at all? Do they care about the government prosecuting a journalist who decided to keep his sources undisclosed? That is beyond disgusting.”
- sarciszewski 11y agoFor the record, I'm aware of a group of blackhats who have co-opted the screen names of popular whitehats (including one who goes by briankrebs).
- tptacek 11y agoThis case would be more like blackhats co-opting Kreb's Twitter password.
- sarciszewski 11y agoDid Keys use NickServ authentication? Was the person using his screen name at the time authenticated? Etc.
- tptacek 11y agoHe says it wasn't him, but if it was someone else, they were much more thorough than just his username, since there's network evidence tying Keys to this as well (see again the search warrant).
- natch 11y agoNetwork evidence put together by who?
- sarciszewski 11y agoAre you aware of this evidence? Was the court, for that matter? It's also entirely possible that they managed to convince a technology-illiterate magistrate to sign off on the warrant.
- tedunangst 11y agoHmm. If we accept the premise that the Tribune is at fault for not securing their systems, does that mean Keys is at fault for not securing his password?
- sarciszewski 11y agoThe answer to your question is probably "Yes".