Gov. Palin's Email Breached DOJ Investigates

[las47032]

Per a contact with the DOJ, an investigation will begin into the group who hacked into Sarah Palin’s email and posted messages on the internet. Intercept of private email communication - even of a public figure - is a federal offense. Not only can the original hackers be charged, but all those who posted the messages as well. The website Gawker may be in further trouble for going beyond the email to post pics from the Palin’s personal message box, as well as other personal information that may be afoul of laws dealing with identity theft.

Addttionally, because Palin is a Vice Presidential candidate, the breach could be considered a threat to safety that the Secret Service should deal with.

In short, serious trouble for some people.

Developing….
UPDATE: Michelle Malkin with updates.

Source: DOJ to investigate Palin Email BreachbyMacsmind - Official Blog of the MacRanger Radio Show on Blog Talk Radio

[Woodmonkey]

I hope some people are in serious trouble over this. We'll have to see what happens.

[leobold1]

Memo to US Secret Service: Net proxy may pinpoint Palin email hackers ? The Register

Memo to US Secret Service: Net proxy may pinpoint Palin email hackers

By Dan Goodin in San Francisco • Get more from this author

Posted in Security, 18th September 2008 01:22 GMT

Memo to law enforcement investigators tracking down who broke into Sarah Palin's Yahoo email account: Gabriel Ramuglia might be a good place to start.

The 25-year-old webmaster and entrepreneur is the operator of Ctunnel.com, the browsing proxy service used by the group that hacked into the vice presidential candidate's personal email account and exposed its contents to the world. While he has yet to examine his logs, he says there's a good chance they will lead to those responsible, thanks to some carelessness on their part.

"Usually, this sort of thing would be hard to track down because it's Yahoo email, and a lot of people use my service for that," he told El Reg in a phone interview. "Since they were dumb enough to post a full screenshot that showed most of the [Ctunnel.com] URL, I should be able to find that in my log."

Ramuglia got into the proxy business a few years ago, after schools began blocking access to an online game site he used to co-own. Pretty soon, people began using the proxy service to access YouTube, Gmail, MySpace, and dozens of other sites that are routinely blocked by IT departments.

To prevent abuse of the service - such as the occasional bomb threat or other illegal act that's been known to happen - Ramuglia logs each user's IP address, along with the time and web destination. That often isn't enough to track down people who access extremely popular websites. But in this case, the perpetrators included a whole string of random-looking characters when posting screenshots of Palin's hacked account. That will probably be enough for him to pinpoint the proverbial needle in the haystack.

The information at the moment is on a server at a Chicago colocation site owned by FDC Servers. Logs are automatically flushed after seven days, so the clock is ticking for law enforcement, who presumably are under intense pressure to protect the privacy of a candidate for the White House. Of course, there's always the possibility that Ctunnel.com was only one of multiple anonymization services the email hackers used to cover their tracks, but there's only one way to find out.

Ramuglia said if he is contacted by law enforcement officials he will probably give them the information they seek. At time of writing, he's received no inquiries from any law enforcement agencies, he said.

The breach of Palin's account "is pretty clearly against my terms of service," he said. "As exciting as it is to be in the news, this is not the type of activity I can encourage by any means."

[Woodmonkey]

I'm glad he has standards and will probably cooperate with authorities. If they can do this with Palin, none of us is safe.

[leobold1]

State rep says son focus of Palin e-mail hacking rumors : State and Regional News : Knoxville News Sentinel

State rep says son focus of Palin e-mail hacking rumors

News Sentinel staff and wire
Originally published 04:53 p.m., September 18, 2008
Updated 05:54 p.m., September 18, 2008

NASHVILLE - State Rep. Mike Kernell said today that he was aware of Internet rumors about his son being the subject of speculation that he accessed the personal e-mail of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Asked whether he or his son, a student at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, had been contacted by authorities investigating the break-in of Palin's account, he responded:

"Me, no."

As far as his 20-year-old son, David, he said: "I can't say. That doesn't mean he has or hasn't (been contacted by investigators)."

Kernell, D-Memphis, cited the father-son relationship.

He said he had talked to his son today, but that he talks to his son regularly.

He declined further comment.

Attempts to reach the younger Kernell for comment were not successful.

The FBI and the Secret Service started a formal investigation Wednesday into the hacking, according to the Associated Press.

A first-hand account reported by the Associated Press suggested her account was vulnerable because a hacker was able to impersonate her online and obtain her passord.

The alleged hacker, using the e-mail address rubico10@yahoo.com, posted Wednesday to a forum on the website 4chan about how he used Yahoo! Mail's password-recovery tool to obtain the Alaska's governor password.

"i am the lurker who did it, and i would like to tell the story," rubico10@yahoo.com wrote.

The hacker guessed that Alaska's governor had met her husband in high school, and knew the Republican vice presidential candidate's date of birth and home Zip code, the Associated Press reported.

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.

Yahoo declined to comment today on details of the investigation, citing Palin's privacy and the sensitivity of such investigations, according to the Associated Press.

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

The break-in of Palin's private account is especially significant because Palin sometimes uses non-government e-mail to conduct state business. the Associated Press reported.

The Associated Press and Commercial Appeal of Memphis contributed to this story.

More details as they develop online and in Friday's News Sentinel.

[Caldric]

Nasty. Why not go through her panties drawers next. Scumbags.

They are scared and I am glad.

[Woodmonkey]

They're getting desperate.