Hasta La Gadget!

Matthew Keys, the journalist who was accused of conspiring with Anonymous, has been fired by Reuters today. On his Twitter account, Keys tweeted, “Just got off the phone. Reuters has fired me, effective today. Our union will be filing a grievance. More soon.” David Girardin, a Reuters spokesperson, confirmed the firing. According to Keys, his termination from Reuters had no relation to his alleged involvement with Anonymous, but was due to him violating his “Final Written Warning”.

The final written warning was issued back on October 25th, 2012. It was issued to Keys because he created a parody Twitter account named @PendingLarry. It was used to mock Larry Page, CEO of Google. The warning goes on to say that creating the fake account that did not identify Keys as the author violated Reuter’s Social Media Policy. It also stated that his actions “displayed a serious lapse of judgment and professionalism that is unbecoming of a Reuters journalist.” The following sentences may be the reason as to why Keys was terminated,

“For these reasons, we are issuing this final written warning. We must see immediate improvement in your communications with managers and more discretion in your social media practices.”

Keys, who was Reuter’s Deputy Social Media Editor, recently came under fire a few days ago after he was criticized for tweeting misinformation from police scanners. His first tweet stated, “Dispatch: First Boston bomb suspect is Mike Mulugeta,” and his second tweet stated, “Dispatcher: Suspect 2 is missing Brown University student Sunil Tripathi.” Keys defended his position in a Facebook post, stating he was unaware that the police asked people not to publish information from police scanners, and that other social journalists were doing the same thing as he was.

Keys told Politico that his termination from Reuters “wasn’t unexpected”, and that his independent coverage of the Boston bombings was one of the reasons why he was fired. Keys also told Politico that Reuters had a “specific set of reasons for the termination” which he and the union agree “is incorrect and doesn’t hold any water.” He states that Reuters may have just been “looking for an out” and jumped at the opportunity to fire him.

[via Politico]

Reuters fires journalist accused of conspiring with Anonymous is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It has been a long process, but one of LulzSec‘s hackers who went by the name “Recursion” has been sentenced, receiving one year in prison for his part in a cyberattack on Sony Entertainment. After serving his year, the hacker, who’s real name is Cody Kretsinger, will have to perform 1,000 hours of community service and home detention. Kretsinger plead guilty to a single count of conspiracy and unauthorized impairment of a protected computer, according to Reuters.

LulzSec is a branch from the more popularly-known Anonymous hacker collective, and has claimed to have initiated quite a few high-profile cyberattacks against private and government websites alike. One such attack was against Sony, who’s website Kretsinger claims to have accessed, gathering information and spreading it to two other LulzSec hackers.

That information was then made public on the group’s Twitter account and on its website, resulting in what prosecutors say was in excess of $600,000 worth of damage to the corporation. Additional members of the hacking group are slated for sentencing, having plead guilty to various related charges earlier this month and back in the summer of 2012.

On April 9, LulzSec members Jake Davis, Mustafa al-Bassam, and Ryan Ackroyd all plead guilty in London to cyberattacks against Sony, in addition to other entities, such as the NHS and News International. Ackroyd, in particular, plead guilty to also plotting cyberattacks against many other websites, among them being 20th Century Fox. Davis and al-Bassam plead guilty to conspiracy to attack law enforcement agencies in both the UK and US. They will be sentenced on May 14.

[via Reuters]

LulzSec hacker “Recursion” sentenced to a year in prison is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Earlier this month, Anonymous revealed they had hacked a number of North Korea’s social networks as part of their “Operation Free Korea” campaign. It looks as though the organization isn’t stopping there as they have yet again launched an attack on a number of North Korean websites, resulting in complete control over the websites.

Anonymous is claiming responsibility for hacking its way into North Korean’s news and information site Uriminzokkiri.com, which has since been taken down and is completely offline as of this writing. Anonymous reveals they were the ones behind this attack as they tweeted on Uriminzokkiri’s Twitter account “more of North Korean websites are in our hand. They will be brought down.” (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: South Korea Blames North For TV Stations, Banks Cyberattacks, Google develops job search engine for the US military,

A few weeks ago, we reported on three South Korean television broadcasters and two banks becoming victims of a widespread malware attack, which resulted in serious network outages. The attack was perpetrated by “Whois Team,” which according to South Korea’s internet security agency was carried out by North Korea.

The attack was carried out by six computers located in North Korea accessing computer servers in South Korea, which used over a thousand different oversea IP addresses. The results of the attack wiped out the hard drives of over 30,000 PCs in the affected TV stations and banks and was being planned for up to eight months prior to when the attacks were carried out. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Adobe Launching Primetime To Tackle TV Everywhere, ‘North Korea Has Launched A Missile’ Accidentally Tweeted By Japanese City,

You can blow away any website in the world if you try hard. Throw enough traffic at a server on the internet—friendly or otherwise—and it’ll buckle. For most these attacks are a headache, but here’s one man who makes a sport (and money) out of swarming his enemies online. More »