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Palin E-mail Hacker Indicted
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."
This is the dumbest crime ever. If he really did it, I just wish he would say, "Yeah I did it, I'm an idiot - just look at my goofy hair." Then they could cite him with a $200 fine for disorderly conduct and we could all move on with our lives. But the fact that he's pleading not guilty is going to give this whole thing legs both in the court and in the media.
I'm a big tall mofo.
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.
She changed her password to 0ldGuY=Mepr3z!!
My understanding was that illegally wiretapping American citizens carried neither fine nor penalty.
Yahoo! Pipes are awesome. How awesome? http://pipes.yahoo.com/jesdynf/slashdot
Obviously, the perpetrator was not entitled to any of the information contained within that Yahoo! email account and should be punished for breaking the law. What sucks is that he not really being punished for breaking the law, rather he's being punished for making Sarah Palin and thus the GOP look bad.
The only reason this is even news is because of the target. If there's no government communication on the account, why are the FBI and Secret Service involved?
How many times a day do bitter exs break into each others accounts? Nothing ever comes of those incidents.
"liberty and justice for all those who can afford it"
Is it just me, or does that sound a bit excessive for guessing the answers to her all-too-obvious "forgot password" questions? I'm not saying he shouldn't be punished, but no actual harm was done. How does this compare to what the punishment would be for, say, hacking into an ISP's mail server and obtaining root access? Or defacing a company's web site?
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
Yes, you might call them *Presidential* standards...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_warrantless_surveillance_controversy
A lot of great information has come out of this so far. On one hand, we have the Governor of Alaska and potential VP of the United States using a public e-mail system (with a really simple password hint) for state work. On the other hand, we have some college kid who used Wikipedia to find out personal information on Palin, hacked her account, bragged about it, then plead not guilty. Is this some type of contest to see who is dumber?
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.
"Kernell, the son of state Rep. Mike Kernell, D-Memphis, turned himself in to federal authorities today."
Is this paragraph from the article misleading? I assume what they are getting at is that he didn't try to run away. I don't think he voluntarily went to the police and told them what he did. He was investigated and got caught, or at least the evidence points in his direction. Now he will take the heat like a man.
Either way, when he gets out of jail, he is going to get some major liberal/hacker tang!
They are except when it happens to a republican then its all ok. Had this been Obamas' e-mail account they would be up in arms.
I smoked pot once. But I DID NOT inhale. Will you hire me?
If you do something illegal, STFU!
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
For some reason the uber-parent failed to mention this, but the TN State legislator is a Democrat. May or may not mean anything, but odd to not mention it, isn't it?
Slashdot: Playing Favorites Since 1997
Seriously. I'm not saying that this guy deserves to get away scot-free, but I would suggest that perhaps the crime here is fraud, not breaking into a computer system (though all the sources I've seen are unclear as to what he's actually being charged with).
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
I seem to see dozens of posters who have decided that Palin was conducting government business over her email. I thought I'd read all the email that had been made public. Did I miss some? Where is this idea coming from? Is it just a meme that everyone believes because someone asserted it? Has anyone actually SEEN an email that was "conducting government business"? If so, can you please post the content?
Enough with this.
I can't believe how many blindly partisan people simply ignore the violation of her privacy.
Would you have the same attitude if you had been the victim?
You'd be OK with someone hacking into your email, or perhaps browsing around your home to look for something that *might* indicate that you've done something wrong?
Would you say, "I guess I had it coming"?
I think it's sad that this (eternal) election has divided American citizens into Republicans or Democrats and not much else.
Damn.
Not really relevant, since old persons don't use email. Just ask John McCain.
John McCain can't type because his arms were repeatedly broken by the Vietnamese while he was a POW. Why do you insult disabled veterans?
You don't make the poor richer by making the rich poorer. - Winston Churchill
Had this happened to Obama, by the son of a Republican McCain supporter, this would be front page, top of the hour news with the media demanding investigations into the republican political machine (the new Cyber-Watergate).
But-- since it was a conservative, we're all sure she was breaking the law and thus he was a justified hero.
After Obama wins all 57 states, he should pardon and appoint Kernell as the new Whitehouse Privacy head.
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.
Unfortunately the example it makes is that you can get away with crimes as long as the victim isn't important.
If you mod me Overrated, you are admitting that you have no penis.
Completely incorrect. Fruit of the poisoness tree ONLY applies to searches done by police. As is the same with most other evidence law precedents. There may be another reason why it isn't admissable, but that is not it.
It's rather the opposite, really.
Perform this thought experiment. You discover that your e-mail account has been hacked. You call the police. What happens then?
If you answered "sweet fuck all" then you are correct! A normal person is never going to get law enforcement to dedicate any resources to the hacking of a free e-mail account. If you are very lucky then perhaps you'll be able to do all the legwork yourself, gather all the evidence pointing to the perpetrator, and convince the DA to prosecute. But even this is unlikely.
But if you're candidate for Vice President suddenly the FBI and Secret Service come swarming out of the woodwork and put this guy into PMITA Federal Prison post-haste!
Yeah, it sucks her privacy was violated. But I care much more about the fact that this guy is only getting prosecuted because he hacked the account of somebody "important".
If you mod me Overrated, you are admitting that you have no penis.
"I'm not saying that this guy deserves to get away scot-free"
Siccing the Scots on him would be cruel and unusual.
Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!
Gosh, why is the system failing. What could possible have happened to the US and democracy in general. Could there be some clue. Maybe something in your post. Geez, lets see.
Personally I forgot it happened
The powers that be thank you, dear consumer with the attention span of a kitten in a chicken plucking factory.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Fruit of the poisonous tree applies to the police, not a lone hacker, nor corporate entity. Just an FYI.
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.
put the what in the where?
Why should she be indicted? None of her emails were very inappropriate.
What we have is some people who thought that Palin was conducting official state business on her personal account, and for some reason, even though her personal emails have been exposed and cleared as appropriate, they still can't drop their belief that she was/is conducting state business on her personal account.
Let it go--she obviously wasn't, and we know that thanks to the idiot who accessed her emails.
This author takes full ownership and responsibility for the unpopular opinions outlined above.
John McCain can't type because his arms were repeatedly broken by the Vietnamese while he was a POW. Why do you insult disabled veterans?
Well, that's what his campaign claims when the embarrassing topic of his technological ignorance comes up. On the other hand, here you can see him firmly holding a pad in one hand, while signing his name with the other hand, standing up, with no awkwardness that I can observe. He's hardly an invalid. If he can do that, he can type on a keyboard.
While I respect McCain's sacrifice 35 years ago as a single data point, unfortunately he's also proved himself to be a dishonorable liar since then.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Just because I don't agree with what the current administration has done, doesn't mean I should let the same transgressions be passed against them.
It's because I think that the wire taps were wrong that I think this guy should be punished. It's not an excuse that just because Bush and the teleco's got off scott-free then all republicans shouldn't be given any rights.
Is that you're logic? Really? Because it's a bit of the reason why these comments get modded down and off-topic. I'm sick and tired of people hijacking threads to complain about how evil it was of the administration to tap phone calls domestically. But apparently you fail to realize that, since the only probable explanation you think of is that there's a hoard of republicans modding down comments.
If it's ok for the citizens to hack accounts just because they're republican accounts and republicans are evil than congrats, go work for bush. It's the same logic he used with the phone taps. In the mean time, I hope you get modded down, because sometimes we'd like to read about the FACTS relevant to the discussion and not just your crusade.
Oh honey look... How cute... an angry slashdotter!
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!
If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
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.
This person guessed the correct password, looked at the e-mail then posted screenshots. The wiretapping analogy is accurate up until the part where he posted screenshots. The person who changed the account is the whistleblower who alerted authorities, supposedly on the pretense of preventing "further damages". There is no reason for anon to CHANGE her password if the snooping was done for the lulz.
I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
Why should she be indicted? None of her emails were very inappropriate.
Government officials have record and reporting requirements. By using an external E-mail provider, she avoided those.
even though her personal emails have been exposed and cleared as appropriate
The account was called "gov.palin" and contained messages like this:
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin_Yahoo_inbox_2008
Let it go--she obviously wasn't, and we know that thanks to the idiot who accessed her emails.
She was using the account inappropriately, that much is clear. One can argue about whether this should be a big deal, given that there was no obviously incriminating information she was trying to hide.
I'd usually say this shouldn't be a big deal. But given her apparent history of abuse of power, this is quite relevant.
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?
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
. 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.
when your political enemies run the media as a propaganda arm of their party, then whistle innocently or cry "tinfoil hat" when anyone points out the obvious.
When your political enemies start arresting people for wearing "give peace a chance" t-shirts in the mall.
When your political enemies create "free speech zones", and their partisan court appointees uphold the obvious constitutional breach
When your political enemies engage in domestic surveillance which makes watergate look like piss in the ocean.
When your political enemies give rise to a multi-billion dollar industry of astroturfing campaign firms trying to "manufacture" "public support" for their intolerant, totalitarian positions.
You have to fight dirty too.
The age of honor is over.
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
...encapsulated in one, simplistic know-it-all sentence.
The so-called Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP) no longer exists, and hasn't since 17 January 2007.
All surveillance was happening under the guise of the Protect America Act, which was designed exclusively to allow foreign intelligence collection without a warrant when the traffic travelled through the United States, whether incidentally or by design. Foreign intelligence collection is always allowed without court oversight; the changes explicitly allowed such collection on US soil as long as the target was reasonably believed to be a non-US person physically outside of the United States, regardless of the other end of the conversation.
Now the Protect America Act has expired with its automatic sunset, and all surveillance must again happen only via FISA, as amended.
Also, TSP, in its entirety, was never as clear cut as being simply "legal" or "illegal" (court decisions on individual aspects aside). Those who claimed that it was "illegal" did so largely for political reasons. The other mistake is equating "traffic that *could be* listened to" with "traffic that *is* listened to" -- unfortunately, they are not at all the same. This also ignores that to even determine whether traffic is subject to legal collection, it must -- to be blunt -- actually be able to be collected. Thus the things like "secret rooms" at telecom facilities.
Having the capability to instantaneously examine traffic of international origin, where one or both endpoints of a communication are international, necessitates such wholesale monitoring capability. However, such capability being present does not imply its use for all traffic.
There are two issues here:
1. Monitoring the contents of a communication
2. Monitoring the metadata or "envelope" (source and destination information) of a communication
The first is allowable without a warrant or court oversight when one or both endpoints of the communication are international, and when the target of such monitoring is a non-US Person outside of the United States. Such foreign signals intelligence collection does not require a warrant or court oversight.
The second point above has multiple functions. One is using advanced data mining techniques to look for troubling patterns in communications.
Such collection has been found to be legal without a warrant or court oversight by the US Supreme Court:
Source: Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735 (1979)
Courts have subsequently found that pen register statutes apply similarly to computer network addresses known as IP addresses, lists of web sites visited, and the "envelope" of an email message -- its To: and From: addresses and related information. The NSA itself has long understood that while the capture of the "metadata" of communications is fair game, the capture of the *contents* of the conversations of US Persons is not, without a warrant:
Incorporation applies via the 14th amendment to rights guaranteed by the bill of rights and other constitutional mechanisms. The Constitution does not grant a right to our government's communication to the public, which is why we have the FOIA. It also doesn't prohibit them, since it's not even discussed in the Constitution in the detail that's covered by the FOIA and related state laws, therefore it falls under the purview of the 10th amendment, which leaves the matter to the states and their residents to decide.
The FOIA act does not grant a new right under the Constitution, and Congress does not have the authority, even under the expanded Interstate Commerce Clause rulings, to force open such communications. Therefore it is not incorporated by precedent into state laws and actions. It is thus functionally invisible to the 14th amendment.
That said, she's probably fair game under Alaska state law, as it should be, since she's only accountable to Alaskans at this point given the only elected office she holds.
I use G-mail predominantly outside of work. So I come to expect someday, probably around 2108, my personal E-mail will be evaluated by historians much like the mail sent to family or loved ones by American civil-war enlistees are today. My work E-mail, can of course be read by my boss anytime they wish to. In all honesty I have nothing to hide, and I do not think Palin has much to hide either. I saw some of the images that were posted and I do not think she is loosing sleep over all this.
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. >.>
"A witty saying proves nothing." - Voltaire
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Many people on here are falling all over themselves to defend their favorite political party.
Democrats:
"He found illegal stuff, so it's OK." or
"No real harm done, it's an innocent prank."
Republicans:
"He broke the law!!! OMG, throw away teh key!"
"It doesn't matter what he found."
Somehow I imagine things would be the exact opposite if somebody hacked Biden's e-mail.
So, for partisan Democrats it's OK to violate privacy if you're sure somebody did something wrong. For Republicans, the whole Christian forgiveness thing goes out the window because their favorite candidate was harmed. Free Barabbas anyone?
It's funny how people abandon their principles so fast when it comes to politics.
I read through your citations, and not one of them are substantiated; They take a narrow and highly partisan view of the facts available in each case. The last claim is particularly absurd, given that no poll was done, and you have to read to the very end of the article (like many published articles in the press, sadly) to reach this gem:
Yet many on both sides of the political fence who initially were critical of Palin have rallied behind her.
"Everything that's flitting through my mind right now is better left where it is," Rep. Jay Ramras, a Fairbanks Republican who has been a strident critic of Palin, told the Anchorage Daily News last week. The governor, he said, has become "the American idol of politics."
But I flat-out don't believe him that he can't use a keyboard. If he can hold a pad (at keyboard height, I might add) and has the fine motor control to sign his name, then he can at-least do two-finger typing or use a mouse.
You're (deliberately, I think) missing the point: briefly holding a pad and pen to sign something or jot something down is NOT the same as taking on the long-term habit of communicating through typed messages, or spending hours delicately pointing a mouse at things. Even people who haven't had their bones shattered in torture sessions can find regular computer use tiring and painful. Why would you expect someone who doesn't have to type his way through his daily communications (because he has cheerful help from someone who's willing to do it for him) to take on considerable pain just so he can get keyboard street cred with you? I suppose you think Steven Hawking should have to pick out every letter in everything he writes because using software that can help him by predicting the words he's likely to be typing is... lazy?
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.