Palin email "hacker" identified?

CptStern

CptStern

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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.


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.

The hacker said that he read all of the e-mails in the Palin account and found "nothing incriminating, nothing that would derail her campaign as I had hoped. All I saw was personal stuff, some clerical stuff from when she was governor?. And pictures of her family."

Once the hacker had read the e-mails in Palin's account, he said he suddenly realized what he'd done and how vulnerable he was to being caught, since he'd used only a single proxy service to hide his IP address.
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he's so ****ed:

yes I was behind a proxy, only one, if this shit ever got to the FBI I was ****ed, I panicked, i still wanted the stuff out there but I didn?t know how to rapidshit all that stuff, so I posted the pass on /b/, and then promptly deleted everything, and unplugged my internet and just sat there in a comatose state
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he somehow made it even worse by posting the login details:

Once he posted the information to 4chan -- the stronghold of the Anonymous griefer collective -- a good Samaritan tried to step in to protect Palin by resetting her password and sending an e-mail to one of her aides, Ivy Frye. But the white hat posted a screen shot of that e-mail to 4chan, and it included the new password. That triggered a feeding frenzy on the forum, as legions of channers competed to log in and reset Palin's password again.

That flurry of activity triggered a security feature that froze Palin's account for 24 hours, which was long enough for the information to hit the media. Palin, or someone in her camp, closed the account early Wednesday morning.
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so very very ****ed:

Gabriel Ramuglia who operates Ctunnel, the internet anonymizing service the hacker used to post the information from Palin's account to the 4chan forum, told Threat Level this morning that the FBI had contacted him yesterday to obtain his traffic logs. Ramuglia said he had about 80 gigabytes of logs to process and hadn't yet looked for the information the FBI was seeking but planned to be in touch with the agents today.

Ramuglia said the screenshots of Palin's e-mail account, which the hacker posted online, will help him narrow his search, since they revealed most of the Ctunnel URL that was at the top of the hacker's browser when he took the screen shot.
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http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/09/palin-e-mail-ha.html
 
That hacker must have a bell-end for a brain. He really is in the extreme deep shit. And his father is possibly a Democratic State Representative?? Wow... He's taken a giant shit on his dad's career and potentially created more ammo for the McCain campaign to use in turning Palin into an even bigger martyr. 'Those filthy Democrats will really stop at nothing to undermine our poor innocent hockey-pitbull!!'

To think all this could have been avoided if he'd paid 50c at a net cafe and anonymised himself a little better. I kind of feel for the guy, but shit, in situations like this you just have to suck it up and hope against hope that they won't trace it all back to you - not blurt it all out like a ****ing baby.
 
Yesterday I said this guy could be a hero. I changed my mind. This guy is for sure an idiot, not sure what the hell he was thinking.
 
His name is David Kernell, son of Mike Kernell, a Democrat member of the Tennessee House of Representatives.


he's ****ed
 
On the bright side his dad can afford a good lawyer for him, but then again maybe he won't want to ;( Plus he'll have the full weight of the Republican war machine bearing down on him. The prognosis is dire, poor bastard.
 
This isn't gonna end well for him.
 
Hacking into a email account can't be that bad though. It doesn't matter who the hell he hacked into. He should be fined or something.
 
the FBI and secret service are involved ..he wont get a simple slap on the wrist
 
Just the wrist. The hand's going back on afterwards. But without any kind of pivot the poor kid will be waving his arms like a Thunderbird for the rest of his life. It's barbaric.
 
He didn't really hack anything. Anyone with half a brain could have reset her password.

Too bad he's going to be in deep shit for doing something so simple.
 
CptStern said:
the FBI and secret service are involved ..he wont get a simple slap on the wrist
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That pisses me off, if average joe had his email hacked into nothing would happen. But if you hack into the vp nominees email your fvcked. Palin's status should have nothing to do with how the law reacts.
 
Laivasse said:
That hacker must have a bell-end for a brain. He really is in the extreme deep shit. And his father is possibly a Democratic State Representative?? Wow... He's taken a giant shit on his dad's career and potentially created more ammo for the McCain campaign to use in turning Palin into an even bigger martyr. 'Those filthy Democrats will really stop at nothing to undermine our poor innocent hockey-pitbull!!'
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As I kind of suspected, greaattt :rolleyes:

Hell, maybe this is all a setup by Palin herself ;)
 
What would be hilarious if that were the guy who impregnated Bill Palin or whatever the daughter's name is.
 
lefty said:
What would be hilarious if that were the guy who impregnated Bill Palin or whatever the daughter's name is.
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Whatttt?!

Lol, I think you are thinking of Bristol?
 
It seems as if the only trouble he is in is a simple fine.

(5) Makes or causes to be made an unauthorized copy, in any form, including, but not limited to, any printed or electronic form of computer data, computer programs, or computer software residing in, communicated by, or produced by a computer or computer network commits an offense punishable as provided in ? 39-14-105.
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http://www.irongeek.com/i.php?page=computerlaws/state-hacking-laws

I'm not sure what ? 39-14-105 is, but it seems as if it a misdemeanor.
 
delusional said:
That pisses me off, if average joe had his email hacked into nothing would happen. But if you hack into the vp nominees email your fvcked. Palin's status should have nothing to do with how the law reacts.
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ya but the secret serivice is obliged to investigate:

wikipedia said:
The Secret Service has primary jurisdiction over the prevention and investigation of counterfeiting of U.S. currency and U.S. treasury bonds notes, as well as protection of the President, Vice President, President-elect, Vice President-elect, past Presidents and their spouses (except when the spouse re-marries), certain candidates for the offices of President and Vice President (mostly within 120 days of a general presidential election),
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lol, pregnant bills.

That kid is an idiot, and deserves whatever he gets. What kind of numbnut posts such a thing while logged in on 4chan? ****ing retard.
 
This stupid country! Internet security only when it concerns the big shots!
 
wow guys, stop sympathizing with the hacker... He knew what he was doing was going to get him in SERIOUS trouble, and did it anyway... What was expecting, the police to show up and charge a small fine???
 
What a bloody idiot.

Fiberawptic said:
wow guys, stop sympathizing with the hacker... He knew what he was doing was going to get him in SERIOUS trouble, and did it anyway... What was expecting, the police to show up and charge a small fine???
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Maybe you should read the ****ing thread first huh.
 
Once the hacker had read the e-mails in Palin's account, he said he suddenly realized what he'd done and how vulnerable he was to being caught, since he'd used only a single proxy service to hide his IP address.
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So he realised that he would be in trouble before releasing all the emails and then did it anyway? WTF? No one would have found out about it if he had left it alone at this point. Now if he had found something criminal/unethical being a marter might have had more merit but by his own admission there was nothing. And then (if true) he goes and posts the whole story. I think he just wants the world to know he is this 1337 hax0r but everyone is just calling him dumb.

delusional said:
That pisses me off, if average joe had his email hacked into nothing would happen. But if you hack into the vp nominees email your fvcked. Palin's status should have nothing to do with how the law reacts.
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I think it is a fair position to take, after all a state governor and VP nominee email account should have good security so breaches should be treated seriously.

Of course it's retarded and subversive to the freedom of information to conduct, even partially, government business via a personal email account.
 
Operational said:
So he realised that he would be in trouble before releasing all the emails and then did it anyway? WTF? No one would have found out about it if he had left it alone at this point.
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He had already reset the password at that point, there was no way of going back. Even if he didn't tell anyone they would have noticed since the password was changed. Of course if he hadn't posted the screenshots he probably would not have been caught since by posting those screenshots he revealed which proxy he was using.
 
OmegaX said:
He didn't really hack anything. Anyone with half a brain could have reset her password.

Too bad he's going to be in deep shit for doing something so simple.
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Agreed, i'd be alot more comfortable if we stopped calling this guy a 'hacker'.

It would appear that his dexterity comes at the expense of common sense.
 
so what is the penalty? If worse comes to worse, flee the country.
 
DEATHMASTER said:
so what is the penalty? If worse comes to worse, flee the country.
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public lashing and the removal of both thumbs ..oh and his father is a member of the house of representatives, there's nowhere for him to run
 
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