Father of palin email hacker is a Democratic state representative

[The Straight Story]

Palin E-Mail Hacker Says It Was Easy
By Kim Zetter EmailSeptember 18, 2008 | 1:05:46 PM

Palin A person claiming to be the hacker who obtained access to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's private Yahoo e-mail on Tuesday has posted a supposed first-person account of the hack, revealing the relatively simple steps he says he took to crack the private e-mail of the Republican vice-presidential candidate.

The story was briefly posted Wednesday to the 4chan forum where the hack first surfaced. Bloggers have connected the handle of the poster, "Rubico," to an e-mail address, and tentatively identified the owner as a college student in Tennessee.

Threat Level was unable to reach the student by phone because his number is unlisted. A person who identified himself as the student's father, when reached at home, said he could not talk about the matter and would have no comment. The father is a Democratic state representative in Tennessee. Threat Level is not identifying them by name because authorities have not identified any suspects in the case, and the link to the student so far is tenuous.

As detailed in the postings, the Palin hack didn't require any real skill. Instead, the hacker simply reset Palin's password using her birthdate, ZIP code and information about where she met her spouse -- the security question on her Yahoo account, which was answered (Wasilla High) by a simple Google search.

The simplicity of the attack, of course, makes it no less illegal.

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/09/palin-e-mail-ha.html

[fed_up_mother]

1. Hackers do it cause they can. :)

[The Straight Story]

2. Same reason I do it....

Oh, you were talking about hacking ;)

[Kerrytravelers]

3. McCain vetting team: Well, I think she can be trusted with security secrets.

[Tunkamerica]

4. So ANON is outing their own? Making them less anon. I would

think. That or they've already been infiltrated. Maybe both.

[Winterblues]

5. Wish a hacker would hack the RNC accounts that the Whitehouse used

:shrug:

[Ghost in the Machine]

6. It's being worked on...

shhhhhhhhh....

[The Straight Story]

7. Project X ya know

still going strong...red pillow, green spider...

[Ghost in the Machine]

8. The oranges are lavender this year... the ice in Greenland is as green as the grass in Iceland

as the psychedelic pterodactyl flies over the velvet moon and disappears into the soft stainless steel clouds..

editid bekuz eye kan't spele gud

[The Straight Story]

10. Got it - will get to work on it now

watch for the aspens....

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

9. ",...the link to the student so far is tenuous,..." ????? Is this another RW-created scandal?

:shrug:

Some student manages to hack into Palin's email. That student's parent MUST be democratic. Therefore, there is a conspiracy to destroy Palin.

Is that rational,...AT ALL?

[The Straight Story]

11. never known the rw to be really rational about most things

:)

[FVZA_Colonel]

14. The media will try and spin this into looking like it's part of some grand Democratic plot.

When he's really just some dumb-ass teenager.

[ColbertWatcher]

12. The issue is not what the hacker did; it's what she did ...

... she used an unsecured email account to conduct government business, avoiding disclosure laws.

The hacker will be dealt with. Palin? Probably not.

[Xithras]

17. Does Alaska's law cover email?

I know that all states have government disclosure laws, but some are narrowly defined and others cover everything. Has anyone looked up Alaska's open records law?

[greyl]

13. Bad thread title - based on extremely weak evidence. nt

[samuraiguppy]

15. Rove masterminded this.

He was just careful to cover up his tracks. Trust me someday the truth will come out--this is bigger than watergate. KKKarl scares me


:scared:

[cali]

18. fucking ridiculous. Karl Rove is a two bit hack, not some omnipotent

genius.

[Ghost in the Machine]

19. Isn't it amazing, the superhero powers that people give that greasy fucker?

Sorry, but Rove isn't some superdooper mastermind, he's just a master of failed policies and a failed president...

[damntexdem]

16. The illegality of the attack, of course, makes it no less simple.

And the security it breached no less simple-minded.

And she chose to conduct official state business using her personal account, thus putting such business at greater risk.