Wow, didn’t expect this one today. Apparently some ne’er do well managed to hack into Sarah Palin’s personal Yahoo account and post the lot to Wikileaks.
From Wikileaks:
Circa midnight Tuesday the 16th of September (EST) activists loosely affiliated with the group ‘anonymous’ gained access to U.S. Republican Party Vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s Yahoo email account gov.palin@yahoo.com and passed information to Wikileaks. Governor Palin has come under criticism for using private email accounts to conduct government business and in the process avoid transparency laws. The zip archive made available by Wikileaks contains screen shots of Palin’s inbox, two example emails, address book and a couple of family photos. The list of correspondence, together with the account name, appears to re-enforce the criticism. Wikileaks may release additional emails should they be of political substance.
I wouldn’t wish this treatment on anyone. There is activism and then there is just down right improper behaviour. I’m not a fan of Palin but, I don’t think it was fair for this information to be posted.
Now, bearing in mind recent Yahoo mail hacks I’m wondering how they got in? Bad password or is there a zero day in Yahoo’s webmail?
[UPDATE]: Chris Eng has a posting on how Palin’s email might have been pwned. And some more info on the ctunnel [dot] com site that was used to “protect” anonymity to the activists from the DailyDave. They are so boned.
[UPDATE 2]: Gawker has an “exclusive” that they posted at 1:03 pm with a copy of all of the info from Wikileaks which, along with its mirror sites, is now (5:04 pm EST) offline.
We have no plans to post a copy of the aforementioned ourselves.
[UPDATE 3]: The McCain camp is now calling for an investigation. From CNN: “FBI Spokesman Eric Gonzalez in Anchorage, Alaska confirms to CNN an investigation is underway.” Good. This is one case where I think the folks involved went across that magic line. If Palin was in fact conducting official business via a Yahoo account to avoid being on the public record that should be captured via subpoena rather than a public whistle blower site. The account has apparently been deleted but, this information can be gathered from Yahoo’s backups.
[UPDATE 4]: Palin email hacker has been exposed (Knox News)! The alleged hacker is identified as one David Kernell a college student from Tennessee. He guessed the password. Sad choice of password by Palin if some kid was able to guess it.
Oh, and he’s the son of Tennessee state Rep. Mike Kernell. (thx reccesuave for the tip!)
[tags]Wikileaks, David Kernell, Palin emails, Gawker, Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin Email Hacked, Sarah Palin Yahoo Email, Palin Email Hacked[/tags]
I am kind of doubting the veracity of this thing. Sounds like a distraction from the economy discussion that is helping Obama…I think we should leave her alone.
On a happier note, National Talk Like A Pirate Day is coming up on Friday, 9/19!
Wikileaks already offline!
See, that’s what happens when a person running for public office decides that her activities are no one elses business. I’m talking about Troopergate investigation. Why in the world are they postponing the results of her investigastion until after the elections. We are interested in her character now, not after she might end up being one heart beat away from the presidency.
THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF MISTAKES WE CAN EXPECT FROM HER. She needs to get off the ticket and wait until she has gained more experience. we cannot afford for her to be making mistakes and jeopardizing the future of my country, my kids, my house, my wife, my parents. WTF!
It is the comments from people like “Angelou” that I am glad we have our 2nd amendment rights. I wish you could line all the people who think like this up in one straight line. Maybe then they would shut up and be worker bees again.
So what happens if there’s “smoking gun” e-mails that prove conspiracy charges against Sarah Palin? Should we ignore those e-mails?
@Paul
Absolutely not. These shouldn’t be ignored at all. I just believe that there was a better way to handle this rather than how it has played out.
Thx for the comment.
Angelou, what makes you believe they won’t give the results of Troopergate until AFTER the election? Was this from some liberal blog? You really should do your own research rather than blindly believing what is claimed by either the radical right or the radical left! The fact is that the investigation is to be concluded several weeks BEFORE the election. The ONLY reason it would be delayed would be because there was NO fault found (which is the only conclusion considering Palin had full authority to fire this person). The investigation is being led by a Democrat who is staunchly supporting Obama.
It is the comments from people like “Trevor†that I am glad we have our 2nd amendment rights. I wish you could line all the people who think like this up in one straight line. Maybe then they would shut up and be worker bees again.
Mary,
You sound a little parched, would you like a second cup of kool-aid?
The fact that Sarah Palin’s documents were revealed goes to show the subtlety of WikiLeak’s influence on the American public. Not that that’s a bad thing! But a college student hacked his way into Palin’s account by GUESSING the password. The password was “Bristol.” Only kidding! It is equally UNTRUE that Bill Clinton’s private number was in Sarah’s phone directory. See what fun one can have with the WikiLeak products.