The Justice Department indicted Reuters social media editor Matthew Keys on Thursday for allegedly conspiring with the hacktivist collective Anonymous to deface the website of The Los Angeles Times and other Tribune Co. newspapers. According to the indictment (read it here), Keys, using the handle AESCracked, gave Anonymous hackers access to Tribune servers. Keys had recently been fired from Tribune-owned TV station KTXL FOX 40 and still had valid login credentials — so he allegedly unleashed Anonymous, urging the group to “go f**k some s**t up.”

They did, kind of. The above headline ran on LATimes.com for roughly a half hour on Dec. 14, 2010

“Keys is being charged under the general federal conspiracy statute and under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), the same act under which Aaron Swartz was charged,” says Justin Peters at Slate. Swartz, the co-founder of Reddit, committed suicide in January before he was to face charges for allegedly downloading millions of files illegally from MIT computers. He, like Keys, was threatened with jail time, of up to 35 years. And the similarities don’t end there. The vagueness of the CFAA — passed in 1984, to nab “sophisticated, malicious hackers” targeting the only entities networked at the time: Banks, universities, and the federal government — allows prosecutors to push for “outrageously severe” punishments like this, for whatever reasons. In this case, “just like with the Swartz case, the feds are going to use the threat of a huge maximum sentence to intimidate Keys into accepting a plea bargain.”

Peters goes on:

“The DOJ doesn’t want to lock Keys up for 25 years, but they’ll be more than happy to pretend they do in order to get the outcome they really want — likely for Keys to spend no more than a few months in jail and provide information about members of Anonymous…. The government wants Anonymous pretty badly, but I’m not sure what their actual game is here. Do they think Keys will roll over and lead them to other Anonymous members in exchange for a reduced sentence? Are they trying to make an example out of Keys so that other people will think twice before cooperating with Anonymous? Or are they simply being disproportionate and unreasonable out of habit? Apparently, they didn’t take away any lessons from the Aaron Swartz case.” 

 25 years for “providing login information that resulted in a joke headline which lasted 30 minutes” is “enormously steep, given the alleged crime,” says Sam Biddle at Gizmodo. 

More info…

“Blade Runner” Oscar Pistorius breaks down at his bail hearing in Pretoria, South Africa. The Paralympic superstar is accused of fatally shooting his 30-year-old girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. 

(AP Photo/Antione de Ras - Independent Newspapers Ltd South Africa)

Wrenching new photos from Iran appear to show a thief having four of his fingers severed by a “finger-chopping machine.” The court-ordered public amputation reportedly took place on Jan. 24 in  the southern Iranian city of Shiraz after the 29-year-old man was convicted of burglary and adultery. In the photos, the prisoner is blindfolded and surrounded by three masked officials who hold his hand under the device. His face shows no pain, indicating that perhaps he was drugged before the procedure. 

Iran’s brutal new ‘finger-chopping machine’ 

Photo: AP Photo/Mohsen Tavarro

“She should have called the culprits brothers and begged before them to stop … This could have saved her dignity and life. Can one hand clap? I don’t think so.”

Self-described Indian “spiritual guru” Asaram Bapu told his followers that “guilt is not one-sided” in the case of 23-year-old medical student Jyoti Singh Pandey who was brutally gang raped on a bus last month. She later died from her injuries. 

Unfortunately, Bapu is not alone in his mindset. Here, 6 examples of politicians blaming the victim. 

Photo: AP/Saurabh Das

“We’re shifting from biologists being out there in these parks to military people being out there.” — Lee White, head of the national park system in Gabon, Africa

In 2011, at least 25,000 elephants were slaughtered for their ivory, which can fetch thousands of dollars apiece thanks to growing demand in Asia. But there’s also a human toll to this violent conflict: Hundreds of rangers and poachers have died in what’s become an increasingly gruesome anti-poaching war.

Take a look inside Africa’s bloody elephant-poaching war

PHOTO: Ding Haitao/Xinhua Press/Corbis

(Source: theweek.com)

In a stinging report, the Los Angeles Times charges that the Boy Scouts of America concealed the crimes of hundreds of child molesters in its ranks from 1970 to 1991.

In one 1982 case, a Michigan Boy Scout camp director said his bosses, learning of an abuse charge, told him to “keep it quiet” to protect the reputations of the Scouts and the staff member accused of the crime.

In a 1987 casein Milwaukee, local Scout leaders got the help of an influential board leader, a newspaper publisher, to keep the news quiet.

How extensive was the alleged cover-up, and what, if anything, should be done about it now? Read more.

(Source: theweek.com)

“An anonymous post on Pastebin asking for Bitcoins? That’s basically a parody of hackers.”  says Julia La Roche at Business Insider. 

As if the pressure of a presidential campaign isn’t enough, Mitt Romney now faces a blackmail threat from hackers who claim to have stolen the Republican’s tax returns. They are demanding a cool $1 million, paid in Bitcoins, “an untraceable online currency popular in the criminal underworld,” says Chris Taylor at Mashable. 

Is this theft even plausible? 

After a cobra bit a 55-year-old Nepalese man while he was working on his rice paddy, the man chased the snake down and bit it repeatedly until it died. Photo: ThinkStock/Stockbyte

GOOD DAY FOR:

Germophobes
A savvy tech company designs an affordable keyboard that you can pop in the dishwasher. [Tecca]

Biting back
A Nepali man who was bitten by a cobra exacts his revenge, biting the snake back until it dies. [Reuters]

Barack Obameat and Meat Romney
A California mosaic artist creates portraits of the 2012 presidential candidates out of beef jerky. [The Daily What]

BAD DAY FOR:

Getting the rocker vote
Days after Paul Ryan’s favorite band denounces him, Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider slams the veep candidate for using one of TS’ songs in his campaign. [New York]

Procrastination
Martin Scorsese is sued for agreeing to adapt the 1980 Shusaku Endo novel Silence, then putting off the project for 22 years. [Death & Taxes]

Gratitude
Cops nab two bank robbers who used lifelike masks in their heist by tracing the thank-you note the thieves wrote to the mask company. [Gothamist]

(Source: theweek.com)

“She’s completely taken advantage of the sympathy and goodwill of hundreds of thousands of people.” — Ashley Burns, With Leather

On July 22, former University of Nebraska women’s basketball star Charlie Rogers, 33, crawled screaming from her Lincoln, Neb., house naked and bleeding with a cross cut in her chest, slashes all over her body, and anti-gay slurs carved on her arms and abdomen. Rogers, a lesbian, told police that three masked men had broken into her house and assaulted her. An outpouring of support rolled in from the community and gay rights supporters nationwide.

Then, on Aug. 21, police arrested Rogers for allegedly staging the brutal “hate crime” herself. If convicted of making a false police report, Rogers faces a maximum of one year in prison and a $1,000 fine.

What makes them think she staged the crime herself? Lots and lots of evidence. 

(Source: theweek.com)