New Twists and Turns on Sarah Palin Yahoo Email Hack

The Investigation:

The FBI and Secret Service are teaming up to try to track down the hacker behind the breach. The Secret Service attempted to get copies of the stolen messages from the Associated Press, according to Fox News, but the AP refused to hand over what it had.

The McCain-Palin campaign is working with authorities to help further the probe. "This is a shocking invasion of the governor's privacy and a violation of law. The matter has been turned over to the appropriate authorities," Campaign Manager Rick Davis stated.

The webmaster of a proxy service believed to have been used by the hacker is cooperating with the FBI to help pinpoint the suspect's location. Gabriel Ramuglia says he believes the hacker used his Ctunnel service to disguise his identity. Ramuglia is now sending more than 80GB worth of server logs to investigators, who hope to find the hacker's IP address inside.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is raising questions over whether the hacker could be legally protected, even if he is caught. The EFF says the Department of Justice believes opened and read e-mails should be viewed differently than unopened messages -- and that accessing someone's read e-mails without their authorization should not necessarily be subject to prosecution. It all comes down to a matter of definitions, but in this case, those seemingly simple meanings could end up making all the difference.

The Players:

A Tennessee state representative is now confirming early rumors that his son is, in fact, the person linked to the postings that claim credit for the hack. State Rep. Mike Kernell told the Tennessean his 20-year-old son, David, is the subject of all the chatter surrounding the case. He declined to elaborate; however, several connections have surfaced between the young man and the forum poster, including a past blog of Kernell's in which he used the handle "rubicox", a strikingly similar name to the forum poster's alias of "rubico10." The posting itself is also believed to have been done under an e-mail account linked to Kernell with that same alias. (Coincidentally enough, the account was hosted with Yahoo Mail.)

Neither Palin nor McCain have publicly addressed the issue thus far, outside of their campaign manager's comments.

Amy B. McCorkell, a member of one of Palin's governor advisory boards who appears to have written one of the hacked e-mails, initially refused to discuss the subject with media members. She later confirmed to Wired that she had, in fact, sent the e-mail -- and had also since been in touch with the FBI.

Alaska Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell, who also appears to have sent one of the hacked messages, is staying mum on the matter.

The Alaska governor's office is generally referring questions to the McCain-Palin campaign, telling Fox News: "People wouldn't be asking these questions if she wasn't a candidate."
Yahoo has stated it "can't get into specific details of any of our users' accounts." The company did, however, post a blog Thursday night urging all its webmail users to increase the strength of their Yahoo Mail passwords.

The Bigger Questions

The revelation that Sarah Palin maintained two separate Yahoo Mail accounts -- both of which have now been deleted -- is raising new questions over how much official government business she was conducting with non-logged, private mail services. Palin has come under fire for withholding more than a thousand e-mails from recent public records requests. The New York Times reports that Palin's staff had actually looked into whether using the Yahoo Mail accounts "could allow them to circumvent subpoenas seeking public records." Palin's spokespeople have stood behind the private e-mail use, saying they "don't hear any public clamor for access to internal communications of the governor's office."

Whether the hack itself was meant as a political statement or a simple prank, it has fueled a controversy now stretching far past the borders of the 49th state. While the ultimate implications have yet to be seen, you can be sure this mid-week move and the fallout that's followed won't soon be forgotten.

How I hacked Sarah Palin's email account

The son of a US state politician has reportedly been revealed as the hacker who broke into Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin's email account.

Democratic state representative Mike Kernell, from Tennessee, admitted that his 20-year-old son, David Kernell, was suspected of hacking the Yahoo mail account and sharing its contents with the world, the Tennessean reported.

Kernell is a student at the University of Tennesse-Knoville. His father, Mike, refused to comment further.

Asked by the Knoxville News Sentinel whether his son had been contacted by investigators, Kernell said: "I can't say. That doesn't mean he has or hasn't.''

The FBI and Secret Service started a formal investigation into the hacking on Wednesday. They have yet to name Kernell as a suspect.

But several political bloggers and news organisations have named Kernell as the hacker after a massive online manhunt.


Michelle Malkin adds the first person account:

Hello, /b/ as many of you might already know, last night sarah palin’s yahoo was “hacked” and caps were posted on /b/, i am the lurker who did it, and i would like to tell the story.

In the past couple days news had come to light about palin using a yahoo mail account, it was in news stories and such, a thread was started full of newfags trying to do something that would not get this off the ground, for the next 2 hours the acct was locked from password recovery presumably from all this bullshit spamming.

after the password recovery was reenabled, it took seriously 45 mins on wikipedia and google to find the info, Birthday? 15 seconds on wikipedia, zip code? well she had always been from wasilla, and it only has 2 zip codes (thanks online postal service!)

the second was somewhat harder, the question was “where did you meet your spouse?” did some research, and apparently she had eloped with mister palin after college, if youll look on some of the screenshits that I took and other fellow anon have so graciously put on photobucket you will see the google search for “palin eloped” or some such in one of the tabs.

I found out later though more research that they met at high school, so I did variations of that, high, high school, eventually hit on “Wasilla high” I promptly changed the password to popcorn and took a cold shower…

>> rubico 09/17/08(Wed)12:58:04 No.85782727

this is all verifiable if some anal /b/tard wants to think Im a troll, and there isn’t any hard proof to the contrary, but anyone who had followed the thread from the beginning to the 404 will know I probably am not, the picture I posted this topic with is the same one as the original thread.

I read though the emails… ALL OF THEM… before I posted, and what I concluded was anticlimactic, there was nothing there, nothing incriminating, nothing that would derail her campaign as I had hoped, all I saw was personal stuff, some clerical stuff from when she was governor…. And pictures of her family

I then started a topic on /b/, peeps asked for pics or gtfo and I obliged, then it started to get big

Earlier it was just some prank to me, I really wanted to get something incriminating which I was sure there would be, just like all of you anon out there that you think there was some missed opportunity of glory, well there WAS NOTHING, I read everything, every little blackberry confirmation… all the pictures, and there was nothing, and it finally set in, THIS internet was serious business, yes I was behind a proxy, only one, if this shit ever got to the FBI I was fucked, I panicked, i still wanted the stuff out there but I didn’t know how to rapidshit all that stuff, so I posted the pass on /b/, and then promptly deleted everything, and unplugged my internet and just sat there in a comatose state

Then the white knight fucker came along, and did it in for everyone, I trusted /b/ with that email password, I had gotten done what I could do well, then passed the torch , all to be let down by the douchebaggery, good job /b/, this is why we cant have nice things

The “white knight fucker” was the /b/tard who thought that going through Sarah Palin’s email wasn’t cool. He logged in, changed the password, and sent an email to a friend of Palin’s warning her and letting her know the new password. Unfortunately, he then posted a screenshot of this email to let the other /b/tards know their fun was over. He failed to blank the password, and they all tried to log in and change the password — which tripped the automated Yahoo! freeze. Since then, the account has been deleted. “Rapidshit” refers to rapidshare.com — i.e., rubico wanted to download the emails, put them into one file, and put that file up on rapidshare for /b/tards and the world at large to download. But he panicked, or didn’t know how to download the emails, and so pawned that task off on Anonymous, which he didn’t realize wasn’t monolithic and in his favor.

As Paul Harvey would say, “And now you know…. the rest of the story.”

Sarah Palin's Yahoo Account Hacked

Vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin's private Yahoo e-mail account was hacked, and some of its contents posted on the internet Wednesday.

The internet griefers known as Anonymous took credit for the intrusion, and screenshots of e-mail messages and photos belonging to the Alaska governor have been published by WikiLeaks. Threat Level has confirmed the authenticity of at least one of the e-mails.

The cache of stolen data contains five screenshots from Palin's account, including the text of an e-mail exchange with Alaska Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell about his campaign for Congress.





Another screenshot shows Palin's inbox and a third shows the text of an e-mail from Amy McCorkell, whom Palin appointed to the Governor's Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse in 2007.

The e-mail, a message of support to Palin, tells her not to let negative press get to her and asks Palin to pray for McCorkell, who writes that "I need strength to 1. keep employment, 2. not have to choose."

The Republican Party hasn't responded to a call for comment, but McCorkell, reached at her office, confirmed that she did send the e-mail to Palin.

A fourth screenshot shows an e-mail sent to Ivy Frye, a Palin aide, from someone claiming to belong to the group Anonymous advising that the person has changed the password to Palin's Yahoo account to prevent other members of Anonymous from accessing it again. The e-mail includes the new password.




The data posted by WikiLeaks also includes a list of Palin's e-mail contacts and two photos of her children.

Palin has come under fire for using private e-mail accounts to conduct state business. Critics allege that she uses the account to get around public records laws, as the Bush administration has also been charged with doing.

WikiLeaks said in a press release sent to reporters that Anonymous gained access to Palin's e-mail account around midnight Tuesday.