SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - News agency Reuters has suspended with pay a deputy social media editor after he was indicted on federal charges of conspiring with the hacking group Anonymous to deface an online story of the Los Angeles Times.
Reuters spokesman David Girardin told The Associated Press Friday in an email that Matthew Keys, 26, was suspended on Thursday with pay. He did not elaborate.
Federal authorities allege that in December 2010, Keys provided hackers with login information to access the computer system of the Tribune Co., the parent company of the Times that also owns a Sacramento television station Keys was fired from months before. Keys' Facebook page says he worked as an online news producer for FOX affiliate KTXL from June 2008 to April 2010.
Reuters hired Keys in 2012 as a deputy editor for social media. He didn't return a phone call or respond to email messages seeking comment.
"I'm okay," he tweeted Friday in response to a journalism colleague wondering how he was doing.
Investigators allege that Keys gave a hacker named "Sharpie" the login information in an Internet chat room frequented by hackers and urged the hacker to do some damage to the Tribune Co.
According to the indictment, Sharpie altered a Times news story posted Dec. 14 and 15, 2010, to read "Pressure builds in House to elect CHIPPY 1337," a reference to another hacking group. "Chippy 1337" claimed responsibility for defacing the website of video game publisher Eidos in 2011.
A second attempt to hack the Times was unsuccessful, according to the indictment.
Federal prosecutors allege in court papers that a legendary hacker and Anonymous leader named "Sabu" offered advice on how to infiltrate Tribune's systems. The FBI unmasked Sabu when it arrested Hector Xavier Monsegur on June 7, 2011. Monsegur secretly worked as an FBI informant until federal officials announced that he helped them arrest five other alleged hackers on March 6, 2012.
Federal officials declined to comment on whether Sabu assisted in the investigation of Keys.
