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Palin Email Hacker Found
mortonda writes to tell us that the person responsible for breaching Sarah Palin's private email account has been found. We discussed the breach last Wednesday, shortly before the hacker, a University of Tennessee-Knoxville student, posted a message detailing his methods. Wired has a story examining the potential legal consequences for the hacker.
Cracker is an idiot. Ever hear of Tor? Or better yet, post the information on something like Freenet and just advertise it on Freenet somehow and let other people get the information out to the main web.
Of course, the fact that he posted his nick on /b/ when it's usually forced-anon anyway means he basically confessed. Not to mention that he said which proxy service he used -- note to criminals: if you want to get away with something, don't brag about how you did it!
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
There's no evidence that we know of that this kid was indeed the hacker other than a post on /b/. And accepting a post on /b/ to be reliable information is like... trusting /.'s front page.
It is usually the easiest way for a lot of systems; that, or just ask the user and they will tell you.
If he's a student, I hope Palin opts not to press charges, or pushes for a slap-on-the-wrist. Some kind of punishment that will sting, but won't be career ending.
No, they are *already* useless for private communication. Email is sent in plaintext across networks, and regardless of prosecution, the attack vector used here is a pretty easy one. If your email is unencrypted, or you're using easily looked-up information as passwords or recovery questions, then it's not private. period.
It would almost be better not to prosecute at all, if it has the effect of making people aware of, and take precautions against, the complete lack of privacy already extant.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
First, it wasn't password guessing. He exploited Yahoo's password recovery system to get it to reset her password. He basically used public information to pose as Palin and convince Yahoo's password recovery system that he needed the password reset. Exploiting such a weakness in the system is, by any standards, "hacking".
Second, after he got in, he than went through all of her e-mail. Breaking into a system, even if it had been a password guess, and then going through its contents is again, by any standard standard, hacking.
I loath Palin, but this guy is going to get what he has coming. Even shitty and crazy humans who think the world is a few thousand years old and much to my horror might be president one day, get legal protection. It isn't like the police can go, "Yeah, he hacked in, but Palin kinda sucks, so I think we will let this one slide".
You're posting here, using racist codespeak (Bubba?), advocating for the physical and/or sexual abuse of someone who hacked a Yahoo account?
Fucking fascist.
- The Big Lebowski
If you have followed the story, he didn't guess the password. He used publicly available information to fool Yahoo's password recovery tool to give it up.
And somehow that turned into headlines that say:
Palin Email Hacker Impersonated Her, Stole Password
http://www.google.com/search?q=palin+impersonated
Even the Associated Press went down that road.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
A number of those emails seem to be very state-businessy looking at who they are all from. And apparently they were using those accounts in order to have the ability to quickly delete any email they wanted rather than be subject to maintaining them for FOIA requests.
It is no longer uncommon to be uncommon.
Yeah, just like the punishment to the Watergate burglars was the same as that meted out to regular burglars.
Fact is bugging your political opponents is Serious Business legally.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/17/palins_yahoo_account_hacked.html
Among the e-mails released as part of the records request in June were several from Frye asking a state official whether private e-mail accounts and messages sent to BlackBerry devices are immune to subpoena, then reporting the answer to the governor and her husband, Todd, who also uses a Yahoo! mail address.
Asking if Yahoo accounts are subject to subpoena and relaying the answer to the governor suggests to me that the accounts were not simple private email accounts.
As for the hacker, hopefully the Feds will give him a nice long stay in a real PMITA prison with a guy named Bubba.
Your post was great until you said this. People should be punished according to sentences under the law, not subjected to the arbitrary abuse of other prisoners.
Social scientists are inspired by theories; scientists are humbled by facts.
Let's say that hypothetically, she was discussing government business on a Yahoo! account. One later crime committed against her does not mean she gets a pass on her own. Plus, she might be Vice President. Hell, maybe even President. So it does matter a bit more than what some punk does.
Please have the courtesy of reserving judgement (sic) until such a time all the facts are in
Request denied. Slashdot is not a court of law, and judgments and opinions expressed by its membership are not binding on anyone. As such they may be made and expressed with too few, just the right amount, or too many facts.
I am not a crackpot.
I can't believe this shit is modded insightful. The judge even admonished the Palins for trying to destroy this guys life. Most of the claims are pretty much hearsay, and at least two of them you cite have been explained. Wooten may not be a great guy, but the shit her family has spewed is a gross over exaggeration. All of her claims of "being tough on corruption" are bullshit. She took tons of money from the bridge to nowhere project. McCain HIMSELF even called her projects out specifically when he was attacking pork spending (wonder why the sudden change of heart...God damned sellout used to have at least some ethics and purpose). She has a tremendous history of abuse of power with this, her dear ol "shadow governor" hubby who seems terribly involved in state business, and then there is the numerous other cases of her firing everyone in her path that didn't do her bidding. She is right in line with the Bush/Cheney method of 0 accountability, above the law, I do what I want style government.
Then there is the issue of her being against teaching evolution. Or the issue of her refusing to fund sex ed classes and demanding abstinance only education (I bet her daughter would have prefered to know how to use a condom about now). We also have her silly "ebay" jet crap...which didn't sell on ebay and was prompty sold to another of her Republican cohorts in a no bid sale for less than market value.
That crazy double talking bitch has no place in our government. And for all you who think Obama's minister was a wackjob, you should check out Palin's. I think the crap Obama's pastor said was pretty bad, but chasing witches out of town just takes the fucking cake.
It is on the news because she is a stark raving mad, clueless, and evil bitch of a woman who will do anything to get her way and dodge any kind of accountability. To include the SAME GOD DAMNED STUNT that this administration pulled by illegally outsourcing emails on government business to avoid the archival requirements. All of this from the party that expects me to believe "if you have done nothing wrong you have nothing to hide" applies to everyone but them.
The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.