Palin Email Snoop Found Guilty On 2 Charges 291
netbuzz writes "A federal jury in Knoxville today has convicted David Kernell, 22, of two charges — misdemeanor computer fraud and felony obstruction of justice — in connection with the 2008 episode where he accessed the personal Yahoo email account of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and then initiated a worldwide rummaging of its contents. The obstruction charge carries a maximum prison term of 20 years."
Re:Two Stupid People (Score:4, Informative)
About as stupid as Obama?
"A Frenchman who police say hacked Twitter accounts belonging to US President Barack Obama and celebrities could face jail."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8586269.stm [bbc.co.uk]
Re:Justice? (Score:4, Informative)
The obstruction of justice charge stems from an allegation by the FBI that Kernell attempted to erase evidence of the crime from his hard drive
Re:I'm still confused by something... (Score:2, Informative)
Do you seriously think Palin will be held responsible for anything?
She's a master at evading responsiblity. She even supposedly got her daughter off scot-free for $20K in damages to someone else's house during a party. See here [alaskawtf.com] and here [blogspot.com].
As long as there is corrupt cronyism, the guilty can do whatever they want.
Re:I'm still confused by something... (Score:5, Informative)
No, that's not it. As long as the person is not working as an "agent of the state", anything they do is admissible. This came up when a hacker kept hacking into pedophiles' computers and turning them into the police. The courts ruled he was not working as an agent of the state, since the police had no control over him.
Re:So you kill a guy, can get out in 2 years min (Score:5, Informative)
Re:So you kill a guy, can get out in 2 years min (Score:2, Informative)
You can kill a guy and never go to jail, like Laura Bush, or a woman and never go to jail like Ted Kennedy.
Re:I'm still confused by something... (Score:5, Informative)
The court determined that she wasn't in violation. Take it up with the court if you disagree.
http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=11867946 [ktuu.com]
Re:Obstruction of justice (Score:5, Informative)
He ran away from the feds when they came knocking, and apparently formatted his hard drive to erase evidence (the wikipedia page says deleted, but I'm guessing that's what he did).
Re:Obstruction of justice (Score:2, Informative)
Erasing his hard drive would have been perfectly fine if he did it before he realized he was the subject of an investigation.
You missed something (Score:5, Informative)
Just because you want it to be illegal doesn't make it illegal; i.e. laws have to be passed by legislature first.
Re:I'm still confused by something... (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Two Stupid People (Score:4, Informative)
Except it wasn't the 'obvious password' which did them in, it was the lame drop-box security questions. Make it so all security questions are chosen when the account is created, and not selected from some stupid list, and your problem is solved.
Alaskan judge disagrees with you (Score:5, Informative)
An Alaska judge has sided with former Gov. Sarah Palin in a lawsuit over e-mail, finding that state law doesn't forbid the use of private e-mail accounts [juneauempire.com] to conduct state business.
By the way, that was from back in January. Didn't your copt of Palin Haters Weekly include that news? Gee, I wonder why not?
Re:Cost of imprisonment isn't worth it. (Score:5, Informative)
it's not worth that much to keep a man behind bars for guessing a password.
Up to one year for guessing a password. 20 years for lying about it.
Re:Obstruction of justice (Score:3, Informative)
But the crux of their obstruction case came from testimony by McFall, a computer expert so skilled he was tapped to help organize the FBI's elite Computer Analysis and Response Team, or CART.
McFall said his probe was stymied by a series of steps authorities allege Kernell took to cover his tracks, including deleting from the computer material gleaned from Palin's account, clearing his Internet history on one Web browser, uninstalling another browser and running a Windows tool designed to speed a computer up by overwriting space occupied by deleted files.
Re:Two Stupid People (Score:2, Informative)
Even safer, is to use a safe to store the passwords.
Safest: safety deposit box :)
not so much...
Many years ago, a friend of mine worked in a bank and told me that they were actually cataloging all items in safety deposit boxs! Having worked at a bank and been blown away but so many lapses of security issues, this didn't surprise me. He gleefully went over various items they encountered - including womens underwear! Mostly papers, not as much jewelry one would expect and some cash.
So, if you really want to be safe, encrypt a file on a storage medium that requires a password and that'll only work on your host at home? Nah I'll just carry my ATM PIN on the back of the card! (That way I can find it in case I forget it!)
Re:Obstruction of justice (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Two Stupid People (Score:5, Informative)
If there had been anything that could have even remotely made even the most shaky, thin case against Palin in the emails, you don't think it would have been the subject of a special Congressional committee and/or special prosecutor? You don't think that was *exactly* the intent behind the account cracking?
Actually, I was on ebaumsworld when the account was "hacked" and the first screenshots were posted and I can assure you it was done for the lulz [encycloped...matica.com] and not some some diabolical political purpose.
Re:I'm still confused by something... (Score:5, Informative)
Too lazy to look up the details, though, so no "informative" mods for me.
You think that proof is required to get modded up as informative here on /.? You must be new here.
Re:The basics? (Score:3, Informative)
Somehow, I missed the original story. Must have been on travels at the time. Would someone help me with these basic questions? (I can't help being interested in the trivia. I love Sarah Palin stories. US politics would be so dull without her...)
- How did he hack the account? Guess the password? Do we know what the password was?
- Were funny email bits published on the net? Are they still available somewhere?
- How did the guy actually get caught?
-Guessed the password (or the password reset questions, forget which)
-Posted screenshots of the inbox, I do not recall any funny bits
-Posted to 4chan.
Re:I'm still confused by something... (Score:3, Informative)
Smoke, maybe, not fire.
Re:Two Stupid People (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Jury also hung on one count (Score:3, Informative)
Palin only said that you could see Russia from Alaska
"They're our next door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska." The actual quote, and an actual fact.
she was trying to claim that as a reason for why she has experience in international politics
In context, that is not her claim. However, it should be noted that Palin engaged in international treaty negotiations, as a representative of the United States as well as Alaska, with Canada. The topic was a natural gas pipeline. In the 2008 Presidential elections, she was the only one of the four Presidential or Vice Presidential candidates with international negotiation experience.