Palin E-mail Hacker Indicted 846
doomsdaywire writes "A University of Tennessee student who is the son of a Memphis legislator has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of hacking Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's personal e-mail. [...] If convicted, [David C.] Kernell faces a maximum of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and a three-year term of supervised release. A trial date has not been set."
What a dumb crime. (Score:5, Interesting)
Bummer (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Maybe the media is what he wants. (Score:1, Interesting)
When this whole thing came out, I learned that Sarah Palin was illegally using personal email accounts for business email, supposedly to avoid leaving the electronic trail.
THAT was eye opening.
Somehow I think avoiding prison just might be a more plausible motivation. I bet he would have jumped at a plea-bargain for disorderly conduct (assuming they got the right guy, of course).
Re:Maybe the media is what he wants. (Score:4, Interesting)
Is that fine a bit large? (Score:1, Interesting)
Secondly, would the fine and prison term be that large if it was any old persons e-mail he hacked* into.
*If you consider asking Yahoo for the password to be hacking
Re:Maybe the media is what he wants. (Score:2, Interesting)
The last time something like this happened, it was called Watergate. Nothing incriminating was actually found in that account, and it's naive to assume that off-the-record negotiation doesn't almost always occur before formal negotiation and voting.
Should make for a great trial! (Score:2, Interesting)
However, I think that there are going to be a whole lot of people that are going to learn a lesson here. Like most of you here, I know a few things about cyber security (I work in the field) but Joe Six-Pack really doesn't. Maybe this will open a few eyes and we can cut down on cyber crime.
*Democrat* State Legislator (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Maybe the media is what he wants. (Score:5, Interesting)
Except she wasn't conducting business illegally, and I'm puzzled as to why you'd falsely post that as a justification for an immoral and illegal act. As the hacker Rubico apparently said:
See, for example, here:
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/09/17/the-story-behind-the-palin-e-mail-hacking/ [michellemalkin.com]
Personally, I prefer Tina Fey to Sarah Palin, but the emails I saw reprinted, while to political colleagues, were the kind that would be illegal (at least at the federal level) to send using government email accounts. For instance, she talked about her Lt-Governor's election campaign. Doing that kind of business on state accounts is a no-no.
But even if all that were not true, you're saying it's just fine to hack into someone's personal email account because you suspect they are guilty of something. So it's fine for the police to do that to you? You must love the Patriot Act and think it doesn't go remotely far enough.
Call that 1984.
Even if Palin had improperly conducted state business on yahoo (which would be stupid and illegal), hacking her email account is still immoral and illegal. I'm surprised that many people who normally are pro-freedom turn out to have very situational ethics when it comes to people they regard as political enemies. As others have said in this thread, a guy called Richard Nixon seemed to think that way.
Re:It could become interesting to prove outside (Score:4, Interesting)
What strikes me about Obama, Biden and McCain is that whilst they may have some level of corruption I think to be fair on them all they do genuinely believe they can better the country if they become president.
Palin is the only one out the 4 who strikes me as only seeming to care about increasing her power rather than improving the country.
Re:Is that fine a bit large? (Score:5, Interesting)
Unfortunately the example it makes is that you can get away with crimes as long as the victim isn't important.
Re:indict Palin (Score:3, Interesting)
On a side note, I'm a Constitutionalist, and would be voting for Senator Dr. Paul, if I were given that chance on the Republican ticket. As it is, I'm voting Obama. Although he clearly does not share most of my Constitutional values; I believe he may be the most important political figurehead of my lifetime.
All of that being said, I dont think Palin did anything illegal with her Yahoo account. She's an idiot separatist and deserves just about everything the "gotcha" media can throw at her; but as other posters pointed-out: it would be illegal for her to use state resources to discuss her Lt Gov's campaign and so forth. Somethings you need to do outside your "official" email for legal reasons.
Re:What a dumb crime. (Score:3, Interesting)
I wish i could sue for 250K when i lost my JMS account. Some one broke into my server last week, that should net me another 250K right? Point is that it is a PERSONAL email account. She should be protected as much as you or me when our accounts get hacked.
Was he dumb? Of course
And the difference is that he hacked one person in the gov and risks 250k and 3years. The gov hacks millions and waves it off. Where's my 250,000,000,000$ in damages?
Re:Maybe the media is what he wants. (Score:3, Interesting)
Or maybe they won't find anything incriminating, like in this instance, and he just looks like an asshole.
Re:Did I miss something? (Score:5, Interesting)
According to The Anchorage Daily News [adn.com] her use of secret accounts for state business was already an issue before McCain selected her as his running mate. A records request this summer by a fellow Republican (Andree McLeod) turned up the fact that she was playing fast and loose with the state records laws.
The Republicans in Alaska had had just about enough of her before McCain swooped in. There was bipartisan support for several investigations against her and a growing consensus towards impeachment.
Now, of course, that's all forgotten, at least in some quarters.
I think that's the whole point. They haven't seen the emails, but their existence has been made clear by (among other things) the privilege logs, other e-mails, and sworn testimony of her staffers. So far, she's refusing to turn them over.
--MarkusQ
Re:What a dumb crime. (Score:1, Interesting)
In a sane world, your comment would make some sense. Unfortunately, admitting liability just means the other side has greater leverage to squeeze every dime out of you possible. You'll be paying through the nose for medical and "pain and suffering" even if the accident didn't even leave a scratch on either vehicle.
And the fact of the matter is, just because you think the accident is your fault doesn't mean it is your fault. The other party may have been doing something illegal or negligent or share some percentage of fault, but if you apologize, guess what? You're 100% at fault now, even if you just meant, "I'm sorry this happened."
Re:So.... (Score:2, Interesting)
It amuses that there are two competing and mutually exclusive anti-Palin memes going on simultaneously:
(1) She was using insecure free email for Important State Business! That information needs to be kept secure so that not just anyone can hack in and see it!
(2) She was using private free email for Important State Business! That information needs to be made available so that anyone can file a request and see it!
Re:indict Palin (Score:3, Interesting)
She's no more a separatist than any other Alaskan. There is not a functioning separatist movement in Alaska any more than there is in Texas (which has it's groups claiming that the state is a republic not a state and there-fore should stand on its own). Efforts to create one in order to paint Palin in a bad light are simplistic and misinformed.
As for being an idiot, I disagree. She's managed to leap herself onto the national stage in a relatively short time period. I don't think it has been a carefully planned assault, but certainly she has managed to accomplish some quirky set of actions that have enabled her to reach this point. I've no doubt there are thousands of other budding politicians out there on city/county and state levels who are trying to do the same and yet there she is.
However, that being said, I don't think she's really the type we want in the VP role right now. Nothing to do with her experience, imho, but perhaps more to do with her social/moralistic convictions.
Re:Maybe the media is what he wants. (Score:1, Interesting)
I'm curious where in the grandparent's post he says it's justified?
I'm also curious where these other posts you're reading are saying it was justified. Maybe I'm browsing at too high a level, because it seems like every post that is modded up agrees the guilty party should be punished.
On a side note, what I'm wondering is how this guy could have cracked her email. First off, the guy is an economics major...
But seriously, how did he even discover that this was the email address to crack? It's rather suspicious, because when they *were* talking about Palin possibly conducting government business through private email, it was *not* this email address they were talking about. I have a feeling that his father being a Legislator played a strong part in this. Either in how he got the email address, or why he's being targeted now.
source:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080917-palin-e-mail-hack-makes-case-for-sticking-with-gov-e-mail.html
Re:Gee, I wonder why the system is failing (Score:3, Interesting)
Given that there are hundreds of news stories every week, are you suggesting that it's realistic to keep track and remember them all without reminder?
how about the guys shouting "kill him?" (Score:3, Interesting)
At Geezer and Gidget's recent speeches, they had people shouting "treason!" and "kill him!", the object of their vitriol being "that one." So, is the McCain Campaign helping the Secret Service in investigating these death threats?
Re:Maybe the media is what he wants. (Score:3, Interesting)
So you think that Steve Jobs knows miscellaneous low level details of a Mac or iPod?
Re:The only solution. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Hacking? (Score:3, Interesting)
Hacking is modifying packets, cracking passwords, and looking for security vulnerabilities. This is none of those
Sure it is.
This is similar to the concept behind "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." To Joe Sixpack, if it's some computer wizardry that is beyond him, it's hacking, especially if it's security related.
It doesn't matter if I found out that $LUSER went to a porn site because s/he didn't clear the history (something utterly trivial), to $LUSER who wasn't even aware of concepts such as history what I have done is hacking. Also blackmail. >.>
Re:What a dumb crime. (Score:3, Interesting)
Which is less than he deserves, really. If you're serious about privacy rights, you shouldn't have the attitude that privacy rights only attach to people you like.
I am serious about privacy rights, which is why I don't want the law to be applied in a partisan way or for political reasons. I don't think he should receive more punishment for hacking Palin's personal account than he'd receive for hacking my own. That doesn't seem likely in this case though. They'll probably be trying to make an example of him. That's just wrong, IMO.
Re:Maybe the media is what he wants. (Score:3, Interesting)
After having proved that Yahoo's email security is nil, he gets accused because someone used his own Yahoo address. I agree that this appears as a weak defense but still... The campus' hacker probably has a dozen of colleagues' email addresses and passwords to use in case of need...
Also, posting on 4chan as anything else than Anonymous is very fishy from my point of view. The defense of being framed holds water.