[Vision2020] Hacker Tricks Yahoo, Gets Access to Palin's e-mails

[Tom Hansen]

In my opinion, this hacker should be prosecuted to maximum extent of the 
law.  If this hacker is not made an example of (since these exploits have 
been published nationally), hacking into people's private emails will be 
looked at as nothing more than a prank.  BULL SH*T!

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>From The Tennesseean at:

http://tinyurl.com/443a3p

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Hacker tricks Yahoo, gets access to Palin's e-mails

Tenn. rep says blogs point finger at his son

By TED BRIDIS
Associated Press 

WASHINGTON — Details emerged Thursday behind the break-in of Republican 
vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's e-mail account, including a 
first-hand account suggesting it was vulnerable because a hacker was able 
to impersonate her online to obtain access to the account.

The hacker guessed that Alaska's governor had met her husband in high 
school, and knew Palin's date of birth and home ZIP code. Using those 
details, the hacker tricked Yahoo Inc.'s service into assigning a new 
password, "popcorn," for Palin's e-mail account, according to a chronology 
of the crime published on the Web site where the hacking was first 
revealed.

The FBI and Secret Service launched a formal investigation Wednesday. 
Yahoo declined to comment Thursday on details of the investigation, citing 
Palin's privacy and the sensitivity of such investigations.

The story took an unexpected turn Thursday, when Rep. Mike Kernell, a 
Memphis Democrat, confirmed that his son, a student at the University of 
Tennessee, was the person who was the subject of speculation on blogs on 
the subject.

David Kernell is a student at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Mike 
Kernell said he spoke to his son on Thursday, as he does on a regular 
basis.

Kernell said he had no knowledge of an investigation or whether 
authorities contacted his son, though he said he had not personally been 
contacted by investigators.

Kernell otherwise declined to comment, or discuss his son's whereabouts. 
Kernell's son did not respond to an e-mail request for comment.

Action started as a prank

The person who claimed responsibility for the break-in did not respond 
Thursday to an e-mail inquiry from The Associated Press.

"i am the lurker who did it, and i would like to tell the story," the 
person wrote in the account on the Web site where the hacking was first 
revealed. What started as a prank was cut short because of panic over the 
possibility the FBI might investigate, the hacker wrote.

Investigators were waiting to speak with Gabriel Ramuglia of Athens, Ga., 
who operates an Internet anonymity service used by the hacker. Ramuglia 
said Thursday that he was reviewing his own logs and promised to turn over 
any helpful information to authorities because the hacker violated rules 
against using the anonymity service for illegal activities.

"If you're doing something illegal and causing me issues by doing this, 
I'm willing to cooperate," Ramuglia said. "Obviously this is the most high 
profile situation I've dealt with."

The break-in of Palin's private account is especially significant because 
Palin sometimes uses nongovernment e-mail to conduct state business. 
Previously disclosed e-mails indicate her administration embraced Yahoo 
accounts as an alternative to government e-mail, which could possibly be 
released under Alaska's Open Records Act.

At the time, critics of Palin's administration were poring over official e-
mails they had obtained from the governor's office looking for evidence of 
improper political activity.

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Seeya at Farmers' Market, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
"We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students. The college 
students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."

- Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)


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