Letting it ride is highly recommended.

For the last time: Frustration with your workplace does not justify a campaign of retaliatory vandalism. You are not the IT Count of Monte Cristo.

Today ComputerWorld spins the sorry tale of Long Islander Michael Meneses. The FBI alleges that he quit in a huff after being passed over for a promotion and, rather than simply sending out a few resumes, began remotely sabotaging his former employer to the tune of $90,000 in damages.

Prosecutors claim: 

"Meneses' efforts ranged from using a former colleague's e-mail account to discourage new applicants from taking Meneses' position, to sending commands to alter the business calendar by one month, disrupting the company's production and finance operations," the FBI said.

As the complaint alleges, the defendant "engaged in a 21st Century campaign of cyber-vandalism and high-tech revenge," Loretta E. Lynch, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, stated in the release.

Mr. Meneses pled not guilty and was released on a $50,000 bail. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, plus fines and payback.

Come on, man, didn't anyone ever tell you that living well is the best revenge?

(Photo: Facebook)

Facebook Home has already passed 500,000 installations on Google Play a week after launch, which just goes to show people love to throw away their friends. [The Next Web]

A cadre of Silicon Valley companies, including Google, Facebook and Microsoft, are quietly trying to kill a privacy bill in California that would give residents the right to know how tech companies are using their personal information. [insideBayArea]

Japan wants to stymie access to TOR by asking ISPs to flat out block it. [Wired]

Comedy Central is planning to host a comedy festival on Twitter because this is what the future is like now. [New York Times]

How technology helped the FBI track down the Boston Marathon bombers. [Washington Post]

It's baaaaaaaack. [Valleywag]

Guilty! (Photo: Reddit)

Just in case Reddit's sense of self-importance wasn't inflated enough, the online community has taken to playing FBI dress-up, creating a subreddit called /r/findbostonbombers that’s “dedicated to helping find the bomber(s)” behind Monday’s tragedy. Since it started late last night, the subreddit has already become a repository for out-there conspiracy theories and Imgur-hosted “photo dumps” that scrupulously analyze every "clue" bored Redditors can find. (Look, this guy's going through a bag!)

The FBI did ask Marathon attendees to send in any footage they might have of the event to help investigators track down the bomber, but somehow we don't think creating a subreddit to accuse innocent people of terrorism was exactly what they had in mind. While their impulse to help is admirable, the "evidence" Redditors have uncovered so far really only adds to the confusion and misinformation spreading in the wake of the tragedy--not to mention all of the horrifying racism cropping up in the subreddit.

Plus, these aren't exactly expert FBI agents. One user has already dissected how bombs function, concluding that the remote-controlled bombs are "chilling stuff." Several others have taken to zooming in on the brand of the black backpack (and where it was placed) that they believe possibly contained the bomb.

However, Reddit can't seem to come to a consensus about who the bomber is, as several of the posts implicate different people who happen to be in close proximity to the explosion. It's almost like it was a crowded public event.

There's always room for more Internet horseshit, we suppose.

Mr. Keys (Photo: Twitter)

Matthew Keys, the 26-year-old social media editor at Reuters who was indicted by the Department of Justice yesterday for collaborating with the hacktivist collective Anonymous, has been suspended from Reuters with pay. Now, reporters are working to cobble together details of his checkered online past.

BuzzFeed reports that along with building a dedicated Twitter following of over 20,000 people and creating popular Twitter parody accounts like PendingLarry, Mr. Keys established himself in the early aughts as an infamous LiveJournal troll, who went by several usernames, the most popular being "madrigalskylark." His presence on the online diary site was so well-known that it warranted its own entry on Encyclopedia Dramatica, a Wikipedia-type platform that chronicles the goings-on of 4chan and hacker culture.

Madrigalskylark's entry reads:

Obsessive LiveJournal user madrigalskylark is known for his attention whore antics, leaving phony suicide notes, passive-aggressive bitchiness, and use of the victim role to earn sympathy from naive, unsuspecting morons. Or gluttons for punishment, depending on how you look at it.

BuzzFeed also links to a fully fleshed out Wikipedia page that user edit history indicates Mr. Keys wrote about himself. The page chronicles everything from the details of his early childhood (he split time between Vacaville, CA, Germany and El Paso, TX) and his past relationships. ("In May 2006, Matthew began dating 'Jeffrey' from the Sacramento area. In early July, Matthew broke up with 'Jeffrey' after discovering 'Jeffrey' was cheating and moving to Los Angeles. Matthew is currently single.")

The entry also contains a detailed trivia section with gems such as, "In high school, Matthew was known as 'The Guy Who Likes John Mayer'" and the factoid that he previously maintained "eight LiveJournal accounts, five Xanga accounts and three Blogger accounts."

"Once again, loser gay boys with way too much time on their hands are discussing me on LiveJournal," reads one of the quotes on Mr. Keys' self-built Wikipedia page. The page also states that Mr. Keys "may have had the first ides of a social networking website on the Internet similar to MySpace."

On a post about Mr. Keys on Gizmodo, commenters chimed in to share their experiences with him. A handful claimed that when they turned Mr. Keys down for romantic relationships, he would create "defamatory (and 90% falsified) websites" or Craigslist postings about them. One commenter wrote on Gawker:

He would make life hell for people who refused to date him. He would stalk and use his tenuous grasp of early social networking to create shitty websites and Craigslist posts full of lies and material created to defame people he didn't like.

He did this to me, he kept trying to get me to go out with him. I refused. Instead of attacking me he went after one of my friends (who he thought was my Boyfriend). He posted fake profiles on dating sights, and posts on Craigslist with his image, with copy that stated that he had herpes, HIV and other diseases.

He would go online and impersonate him, furthering these lies. This got so bad that my friend left the state, his job, and all of his friends almost over night. Everywhere he went people would come up and ask him if he was "that guy form the Craigslist posts" or "the herpes dude". My friend was one of several people that Matthew did this to. Most of them were targeted because they refused to date him, still there were others that he attacked for reasons unknown to me.

Another Gawker commenter wrote that when he asked Mr. Keys to stop talking to him, "he tried to blackmail me with (what he thought were) nude pics of me. Threatened to send them to all of my coworkers, all of my Facebook friends, etc."

Despite his alleged involvement with Anonymous, Mr. Keys actively leaked information to websites like Gawker about the goings-on in hacker IRC rooms. He also used the information gleaned from his conversations with Anonymous members to inform reporting he did for Reuters.

Sabu, the LulzSec hacker turned FBI informant, tweeted about Mr. Keys back in March 2011, but the tweet flew under the press radar. The AP reports that one day after it was announced that Sabu was an FBI informant, Mr. Keys wrote a story for Reuters about how he had "infiltrated" the hacker group. It's unclear whether this is a coincidence, or if Mr. Keys believed Sabu would snitch on him and made an attempt to cover his tracks by publicly claim to have infiltrated Anonymous instead of copping to collaborating with them.

An anonymous source told Betabeat that Mr. Keys said the day before news of the indictment broke that he was worried he would be fired. Mr. Keys has since claimed on Twitter that statement was unrelated to the indictment.

The AP reports that the former KTXL Fox 40 producer, who allegedly shared login credentials with members of Anonymous so that they could deface articles on the Los Angeles Times website, is scheduled for arraignment in Sacramento on April 12th. "Reuters spokesman David Girardin said the company was 'aware' of the indictment when Keys was hired last year, but he declined further comment," wrote the AP. The story has since been altered to reflect the official Reuters statement:

“We are aware of the charges brought by the Department of Justice against Matthew Keys, an employee of our news organization. Thomson Reuters is committed to obeying the rules and regulations in every jurisdiction in which it operates. Any legal violations, or failures to comply with the company’s own strict set of principles and standards, can result in disciplinary action. We would also observe the indictment alleges the conduct occurred in December 2010; Mr. Keys joined Reuters in 2012, and while investigations continue we will have no further comment.”

Mr. Keys claimed to have found out about the indictment on Twitter. Shortly after news broke of the indictment, Mr. Keys tweeted the following:

https://twitter.com/TheMatthewKeys/status/312348676448219137

A Reuters employee told Reuters (yup) that Mr. Keys' work station was being dismantled and his security key card had been deactivated.

The Ventura, California based law firm Jay Leiderman announced on Twitter that they plan to represent Mr. Keys. "We fight the man for you," reads the firm's Twitter bio.

Update: A tipster who spoke under condition of anonymity provided Betabeat with the following screenshots from Mr. Keys' Facebook profile. Since news broke of his indictment last night, he's addressed the issue twice on his page:

The first post, published shortly after news of the indictment broke on Twitter.

The second post, shows Mr. Keys taking issue with (or making a joke about) a sentence in an AP story about him.

Do not steal form her. (Photo: Necole Betchie)

Well look who's scroogling screwing people now. The European Union has fined Microsoft $731 million for violating its promise to offer consumers a choice of web browser. Probably because when given a choice, no one will pick Internet Explorer. [Reuters]

Facebook plans to announce better ways to filter News Feed content at tomorrow's big press event, including being able to view just Instagram photos. Photos will also appear larger for posts and, of course, ads. [TechCrunch]

What happens when you share Beyonce files on BitTorrent? Sony smacks you with a $233,000 damages lawsuit. That's what you get for stealing from Queen Bey, we suppose. [TorrentFreak]

The FBI is secretly spying on some Google users, though because of national security, Google can only give an estimate of how many accounts have been tapped. [Wired]

JFK employees reportedly saw a drone aircraft flying around yesterday, and now the FBI wants your help tracking it. [Motherboard]

(Photo: ZCache)

It turns out that even top secret agents aren't immune to the sexting craze. CNN reports that according to confidential disciplinary reports it obtained, the FBI is fighting a "rash of sexting" among its employees, many of whom used their work cell phones to transmit noodz.

The reports revealed that several employees sent naked pictures and sexually explicit messages during work; one was involved in a domestic dispute at his mistress' apartment; and one paid for a happy ending at the massage parlor. Suddenly House of Cards is beginning to seem pretty darn realistic.

"You can't do this stuff," Candice Will, the FBI's assistant director, told CNN. "When you are given an FBI BlackBerry, it's for official use. It's not to text the woman in another office who you found attractive or to send a picture of yourself in a state of undress. That is not why we provide you an FBI BlackBerry."

Frankly, we're more concerned that employees at the Federal Bureau of Investigation are that careless when it comes to keeping secrets. Isn't your job to like, be a super stealthy double agent and investigate stuff without people knowing? And you can't figure out how to download Snapchat? SMH.

(Photo: Ryan Ebert)

When Congress passed the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, it banned people from pointing laser pointers at airplanes in flight.

If that sounds to you like just another machination of the nanny state, here's news for you: Aiming laser pointers at planes is apparently a thing, and the feds are apparently on the case. In a press release today, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York announced charges against a Long Island man accused of aiming his laser at a commercial plane and a Suffolk County Police Department helicopter.

According to the complaint, Shirely, Long Island resident Angel M. Rivas was picked up outside a Quick Stop convenience store and copped to aiming a laser at the aircraft in question.

“Laser pointers aimed at aircraft pose many dangers, including disrupting the vision of pilots,” U.S. Attorney Loretta E. Lynch said in a statement.

And before you ask how much damage a laser pointer can really do, consider this 2011 story from The New York Times reporting that "A beam that is 1/25th of an inch wide at its origin can be 2 to 3 feet wide by the time it reaches an airliner approaching or departing an airport."

As for the charges against Mr. Rivas, an FBI spokesman told Betabeat that today's charges represent the first time the Bureau's New York office has brought charges under the laser pointer law, though not for lack of trying. The office has opened 72 investigations into FAA-reported laser incidents.

"Shit, it's the cops!" (Cashcats.biz)

Surprise, surprise: When corporate criminals exchange communiqués over email, guess what sorts of phrases they're actually dumb enough to use? Try "cover up" and "nobody will find out," according to the Financial Times.

Well, maybe no one would find out if you'd stop using a method of communication that lives forever on your employers' servers!

These little factoids are brought to you by researchers at Ernst & Young, who've worked with the FBI to identify 3,000 keywords that could serve as useful flags for wrongdoing:

“The language, which is a mix of accounting phrases, personal motivations and attempts to conceal, are very revealing,” said Rashmi Joshi, Ernst & Young’s director of fraud investigation and disputes services.

As of right now, fraud investigators mainly find email evidence useful once they've already been tipped off somehow, despite all the ominous wording in employee handbooks about your employer's right to monitor your online activities. But as linguistic analysis software tools grow more sophisticated, even the company cops in the compliance department may be able to catch offenders early.

Call it further proof of Marc Andreessen’s contention that software is eating the world. In this case, skullduggery by corporate employees is the latest market due for disruption. If you're attempting to embezzle enough to send your kids to private school, better do it quickly.

Like this but minus all the aliens and sewer monsters.

If you work at a hedge fund and perhaps do a bit of light insider trading to fund your daughter's equestrian extracurriculars, you might want to be careful about what you're posting on Facebook and Twitter these days. There are FBI agents charged with highlighting any evidence of wrongdoing you might let slip.

Poor bastards, they probably joined up thinking they'd get to be some combination of Fox Mulder and Seeley Booth.

Reuters reports that, "The FBI sees social media as a potential breeding ground for securities fraud, and has agents scouring Twitter and Facebook for tips." That's according to the agents in charge of "Operation Perfect Hedge," charged with ferreting out insider trading in the hedge fund sector.

We wouldn't be surprised to see at least one underling nailed for an ill-advised Facebook status. The history of insider trading is littered with guilty parties who should have been a bit more careful with their digital breadcrumbs, like the dude who Googled his likelihood of getting caught. Some overconfident jackass caught tweeting "Ballin' hard after getting some sweet tips from my boy @materialnonpublic #killingit" would be the next logical step.

But it sounds like the agents are also looking for people using social media as a new way to trade tips. From Reuters:

"I will tell you technology will play a huge part, social media, Twitter. Any kind of technology that is new and doesn't exist today, if there is any way to exploit it, these individuals will exploit it," Brooks told Reuters TV in an interview for the Reuters Investment Outlook 2013 Summit.

Here's a humdinger for you: How many retweets does it take to transform non-public information into something public?

Barrett Brown (video still)

Writer and journalist Barrett Brown has been charged by the U.S. attorney with conspiracy to reveal private information about a government employee, Internet threats and retaliation against a federal investigator.

Mr. Brown, who has sometimes been referred to as a spokesman for Anonymous, was arrested on September 12 at his Dallas-area home after he posted a series of bizarre and rambling videos on YouTube titled, "Why I'm Going to Destroy FBI Agent Robert Smith."

In one of the videos Mr. Brown, whose mood appeared to change from relaxed to enraged from one moment to the next, made direct threats against Agent Smith and implied he would investigate the agent's children.

Brown was taken in by Dallas Pd & turned over to the Feds the next day.

Back in mid-September The Daily Dot published the full video of the TinyChat session during which Barrett Brown was arrested by the Dallas County Sheriff's Office, as well as a link to the Pastebin transcript of the event. He was picked up by the FBI the next day:

As for Mr. Brown's actual status with Anonymous, the hacktivist collective's most active Twitter stream, @YourAnonNews, appears to reflect conflicting feelings among other Anons about Mr. Brown's relationship with them:

#Anonymous "spokesman's" (read: egofag) YouTube meltdown led to arrest | pulse.me/s/dwQ0h

— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) September 22, 2012

Write Barrett Brown: Barrett Brown #45047177 Mansfield Law Enforcement Center 1601 Heritage Parkway Mansfield, TX 76063 #FreeBB

— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) September 18, 2012

A letter allegedly written by Mr. Brown has been published on Pastebin. In it he alleges that there is much he can't disclose and that he has been injured and is not receiving proper treatment. Mr. Brown also appears to obliquely reference Agent Smith again:

Apparently I am not just a danger to the fragile FBI agents who have taken to threatening my mother and fracturing my ribs in the course of heavily-armed raids on my uptown Dallas apartment, but must be prevented from explaining to my associates, followers, and even enemies why I have again been subjected to violence and indignity.

Near the end of his message, Mr. Brown writes that he regrets nothing. He concludes that once he regains the freedom he didn't do anything to lose, "it is war, on paper as always, but war."