Is Palin's hacker a Tennessee college student?
There are mixed reports on Friday whether or not the son of a Tennessee state representative has been contacted by the FBI or Secret Service in connection with Sarah Palin's hacked Yahoo Mail account.
The father, Democratic Rep. Mike Kernell has told Knoxville News Sentinel and The Tennessean that despite a lot of online chatter, no formal contact has been made.
The person who gained access to Palin's e-mail account did so by guessing details of her life, then changed the e-mail password to "popcorn."
Using the online nickname Rubico, someone posted details of the hack to a forum on the 4Chan.org Web site starting on Tuesday. Password-protected zip files containing the contents of the now-deleted e-mail account once belonging to the Republican vice-presidential candidate have also been posted to the forum.
Subsequent posts by Rubico to the /b/ board over the last few days have provided additional insight into how the hack was carried out, although many of the posts have now been deleted.
As CNET's resident security expert, Robert Vamosi has been interviewed on the BBC, CNN, MSNBC, and other outlets to share his knowledge about the latest online threats and to offer advice on personal and corporate security. Listen to his podcast at securitybites.cnet.com or e-mail Robert with your questions and comments. 
First, she's skirted public accountability regulations by conducting state business "off the record". She was trying to apply the Bush administration's example, ala using RNC e-mail to keep embarrassing information off of the government backup tapes, Sarah got caught with with her hand in the cookie jar. I guess her promise of "openness and accountability" in government is just another lie on her part....
Second, since this e-mail contains state business, that part needs to be accessible to the public under the Freedom of Information act.
Third, Sarah's the one who needs a stint in a prison cell for using non-governmental services to conduct the state's business. I sincerely hope the Troopergate investigators will hit Yahoo with a barrage of summons for **ALL** backups of the Palin accounts to comb for what else she's been attempting to hide. If she had been using governmental servers behind firewalls, it would take a lot more than an "I've forgotten my password" link to access the account. Yet another example of cluelessness.
Fourth, in case you hadn't noticed, now that the Bush administration has instigated warrant-less wiretaps, there is no guarantee of privacy in this country. The telco's can and will turn over anything when asked and have been granted immunity for it.
That will teach him.
savvydude as long as YOU pay to keep him in jail with YOUR money go for it
Bob
and are you (kobrabob) SERIOUSLY equating someone looking at your email to BEING RAPED??? i think you are the one with a messed up 'belief system' but i'm guessing your eager defense of Palin is an indication of your republican point of view which explains a lot!
People take risks all the time, but when you take the risk, the should be willing to face the resulting reaction. You (or your supporters) shouldn't whine when you have to deal with the consequences. This person deserves jail time.
Trust an Obama Kool Aide drinker to totally miss the point and start spenwing out nonssensical Obama talking points, in a zombie like fashion.If there is one more reason never to vote for Obama, its gotta be this outrage by this jihadist Obama operative.
No Parole & No Computer Access! I have had enough of "Hackers" & "Virus Writers". It's time to deal out some severe punishment!
Sadly, sooner or later we will all have to encode our emails (be it PGP or scrambled in some way) to avoid issues like this. What happened to the good ole days on the net and national services back in the late 80's when we didn't have to worry as much.
Putting aside how this person ought to be punished, let's focus on a more serious issue:
Nobody can trust Yahoo to protect their identity. But, just how many other businesses would so easily turn over accounts to criminals? I bet there are a lot.
Here's another interesting and related concern: Yahoo is one of the companies participating in the Open ID effort to create a single sign-on procedure for all web sites. Can you imagine if Ms. Palin had used Yahoo! as her OpenID provider and used that ID at banks, stock firms, etc. With the loss of a single identity, she could find herself in the poor house in days.
I am actually much more concerned with the fact that Yahoo so easily handed over the account details. This ought to be a lesson to companies even more than the person who stole Ms. Palin's e-mail. While her damage was relatively minor (in my view), it could have been far worse. More stringent measures need to be put into place to prove a person is who they say they are when they're trying to gain access to an account.
Paul
Why not tell your Government that (ever heard of FISA?). I guess it's legal for only a select few to rape and steal.
I think you'd better read the FISA law before you start spewing out rubbish.
An act authorised by congress and by the courts of this country is nowhere close to a nasty, rabid criminal act carried out by a Democratic Party operative and Obama Nazi storm trooper.
This might get more interesting considering Kernell's David Plouffe connection.(Obama's campaign manager)
- by iff2mastamatt September 22, 2008 6:57 PM PDT
- The reason why this crime could be compared to rape is not because of the consequence, but because it happens too much. Throw the kid in jail for life, and I can bet hacking in general will be reduced. Personally, I believe rapists/child molesters should be put to death. Why? We are too lenient in the United States. In some countries, if you are even suspected of stealing, your right hand will be chopped off without a trial. Harsh? Yes. But people will steal a lot less if their rules are enforced more strictly.
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