Matthew Keys, former web producer for Tribune’s Sacramento Fox affiliate KTXL, has been sentenced to two years for helping the hacker group Anonymous break into the Los Angeles Times website.
Sacramento ABC affiliate KXTV reports Keys also got two years of supervised probation.
Two years for a web defacement lasting 40 minutes. https://t.co/7sQFxm1fpH
Advertisement— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) April 13, 2016
Federal prosecutors in Sacramento say despite his role in the news media, Keys was simply a disgruntled employee striking back at his former employer.
Keys took to Twitter following his sentence to say he plans on filing a motion to stay the sentence.
He was convicted of providing login credentials to The Tribune Co.’s computer system.
The company owns the Los Angeles Times and FOX affiliate KTXL-TV in Sacramento, where Keys worked until he was fired two months before the 2010 hacking.
When charges were filed in 2013, he was fired from his then-employer, the Reuters news agency.
His attorneys call the hacking a relatively harmless prank.
In any case, the sentence is what it is. I’m innocent, and I hope that we can make some headway in the appeals process.
— Matthew Keys (@MatthewKeysLive) April 13, 2016