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

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: Knoxville Sentinel

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)."

Read more: http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/sep/18/tennessean-state-reps-son-contacted-palin-e-mail-p/

[fishwax]

1. Weird -- I hope he it's just a rumor

[ohio2007]

2. The FBI and the Secret Service started a formal investigation

snip

"i am the lurker who did it, and i would like to tell the story," [e-mail] 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,"


snip

Guess this boy will be working for the gobmit now that he failed to "CYA" as they say.

U.N. Agency Eyes Web Anonymity Controls
(CNET) A United Nations agency is quietly drafting technical standards, proposed by the Chinese government, to define methods of tracing the original source of Internet communications and potentially curbing the ability of users to remain anonymous.

The U.S. National Security Agency is also participating in the "IP Traceback" drafting group, named Q6/17, which is meeting next week in Geneva to work on the traceback proposal. Members of Q6/17 have declined to release key documents, and meetings are closed to the public.

The potential for eroding Internet users' right to remain anonymous, which is protected by law in the United States and recognized in international law by groups such as the Council of Europe, has alarmed some technologists and privacy advocates. Also affected may be services such as the Tor anonymizing network.

"What's distressing is that it doesn't appear that there's been any real consideration of how this type of capability could be misused,"


snip


http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/12/tech/cnettechnews/main4443738.shtml

Text

1984


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Minutes_Hate

[superconnected]

3. I think he would have said no if his son hadn't been contacted.

However the question may have come from left field for him and he may not have consulted with his son yet.

[ann_american2004]

4. The person who hacked her account

could just as easily have used someone else's account to do it/brag about it. No brainer.

[NashVegas]

28. Exactly

I've been in online gaming circles where people did shit you wouldn't believe to get wars started, just to fix names on a lederboard. Anyone who thinks people wouldn't do the same to fix an election?

The kid is the son of a Democratic politician. How much of a bonehead does he have to be to go to a forum and discuss what he did, PLUS, announce "gee, she's clean"?

This has the whiff of bullshit to me. I'm waiting for the FBI report to judge.

[bjnumb9]

5. Attaboy, fellow UT Volunteer!

Go Vols!

:)

[mmnnbb]

8. is that what we have come to?

[rhett o rick]

13. Yes. republican greed has almost destroyed this country. We need to drive each and every one of

them into the ocean. Let them swim to Russia where they can live nice and secure like they want. Leave us alone. We stand by the Constitution. If you don't like the Constitution, like Georgie Bush, then get the hell out.

[liberal1973]

23. wtf?

[rhett o rick]

44. Sorry, wasn't I clear enough? I didn't mean to literally drive them into the ocean, it was a

metaphor. I was going a little strong because the poster sounds like a troll.

[Codeine]

46. No, he doesn't sound like a troll.

Just somebody with legitimate ethical concerns.

[rhett o rick]

50. Ok let's try and put our "ethical concerns" in perspective. The republicans have

tortured hundreds and murdered maybe a million with a lot of them children. 5 million Iraqi children orphaned. Destroyed our Constitution and bankrupt our middle class. And what did the poster say? "Go Vols"? Like he was happy that Palin had some discomfort. To me "ethical concerns" should be directed at the republicans that steal elections.

[Mesteryo]

53. that's not ethical...

So you think we should commit cyberterrorism if it suits our agenda? That's not democratic, it's anarchy.

[rhett o rick]

58. Ethical, mthical, it's time to kick some repub ass.

In case you ain't noticed it, we are at war. Police are beating up, tasering and even torturing demonstrators. The republicans have run the country financially into the ground, maybe past recovery, they have waged an illegal war with our family members and our money. They have killed hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi's. So excuse me if I don't go ape-shit over a little hacking. By the way the other side is spying on ALL OUR communications.

[Zuiderelle]

70. Actually, he kind of does.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4018475&mesg_id=4033592

[Codeine]

71. LOL!

I spoke too soon! Good catch.

[mmnnbb]

64. A Troll???

My point was that every time stuff like this happens we lose more votes.

[rhett o rick]

65. Please be more specific. Every time some kid hacks in a yahoo email we lose votes? I don't think so

Every time the Senate Democratic leadership lets the GD republicans call a filibuster without nailing them to the wall, we lose votes. The Democrats are too soft and need to hit harder. We are in a war for our freedom. Rove isn't above stealing elections, and you are worried about some kid hacking Palin's email. I am not even sure what was done is actually against the law. If you do, please enlighten me with the law that was broken.

[Anexio]

72. Get a grip Rick

"We stand by the Constitution. If you don't like the Constitution, like Georgie Bush, then get the hell out."

So what part of the Constitution do you pick and choose from? Personal freedom and the right to communicate without the fear of being broken into, is that your problem?

You talk a big talk but you're so inconsistent I'm having a hard time understanding you. You love the Constitution but yet you think it's alright to break into an American citizens personal email account and display the results publicly.

Are you a Constitutionalist or an anarchist?

Just curious, not judging.

[Sheltiemama]

49. Go Big Orange!

Class of 1989!

Some company ought to hire this kid. He's good.

[grytpype]

6. He's a Dem.

[FVZA_Colonel]

12. Whether the Dad is or isn't shouldn't matter.

There's no evidence this was politically motivated, and/or that the Obama campaign had any connection to it.

It is likely he is simply a member of the group Anonymous, which sprung off the infamous web forum 4chan.

[slackmaster]

30. I thought Anonymous targeted only Scientology

Or maybe there is more than one Anonymous.

[FVZA_Colonel]

37. Their slogan is "We are legion."

They do all sorts of different things.


To be fair 4chan has done some good in the past, I believe helping catch a wanted pedophile and pranking Hal Turner's radio show to the point it temporarily ground to a halt.

[bluedem77]

7. Is he a Republican?

Or a Democrat.

[cabbage08]

36. democrat

[ann_american2004]

9. this is an outrage!

Hacking is against the law. This is like being violated. Poor Palin. This is like email-rape. My gosh what an outrage. Palin has been email-raped on the internet. Justice has to be served and I hope she is allowed to follow procedures like those she paved in Wasillia. I hope she will be paying for her own email-rape test kit and not using the taxpayers dollars on the FBI.

Hacking is wrong. Dont do it kids. And dont use Yahoo for government business when you grow up. It's not a smart thing to do. And always always remember to be kind to others because someone might be listening.

[Psephos]

10. It is an outrage, in several ways, none of which help our cause

It's just plain bad press and puts dems on the defensive.

It's a felony. To dismiss it is to say that the rule of law doesn't mean much and anarchy is preferable when we run into laws we don't personally approve of.

It's an invasion of privacy, the very kind we rightly have condemned when arguing against expansion of the Patriot Act and FISA.

It might not offend the dem base but it sure fires up the other guy's base, and it makes independents wonder why the the dem base thinks it's either laudable or inconsequential.

I don't see the win here.

[rayofreason]

16. Sorry - too reasonable

Post 13 seems to better capture the mood here, despite the fact that you are spot on. And when it turns out it was an overenthusiastic, but foolish, kid with a Democratic pedigree, the same folks will accuse him of being a "Rovian plant" or some equally idiotic nonsense.

I hope that Palin intercedes in some way to cut him a break, even if it helps her politically. I hate to see a kid ruin his life because of a stupid mistake.

[Piewhacket]

15. Sarah Palin should definitely pay.......

for her email-rape kit (hope they are expensive and unpleasant to use).


but be advised some doubt has been offered about whether email-rape is
technically illegal.

it probably should be, but repuk AGs have apparently decided it
isn't illegal (when they want to do it without a warrant) and have so
advised the FBI.

see the eff site for the legal analysis.
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/09/doj-view-email-privacy-may-hamper-prosecution-pali

[Blue State Bandit]

17. Yes, against the law. Tell that to her idol...

George W. Bush.

[ann_american2004]

20. no shit

[Liberal Dose]

21. Her email account was asking for it! Sitting there being so easy to hack.

Practically a formal invitation.

[liberal1973]

24. bs

[Liberal Dose]

26. I gather you failed to comprehend that I was making a joke. I'm not surprised. The second

requirement for Republicans (after a mandatory lobotomy) is a humorectomy.

[ann_american2004]

29. cornflakes out the nose really hurts, you know

but thanks for the laugh. I needed it this morning.

[Liberal Dose]

34. I hope they were soggy!

If it's any consolation, the vivid picture of cornflakes flying out of someone's nose made me spit water on myself. :rofl:

[Jennicut]

32. Email-rape?

Never heard that term before. Poor Palin, she has been soooo abused. Like Paris Hilton.

[Ignis]

51. "email-raped" ?!? Oh please.

:eyes:

[ann_american2004]

59. the republicans are treating it that seriously...oh wait

they dont treat rape very seriously, at least Palin doesnt = no compassion, no protection, no rape test kits, no right to choose in the case of a forced pregnancy, highest rates for women and child abuse. You think I REAL care about her stinking "illegally used for gov business" email account? Oh please. LOL. Uh...nope. :eyes:

[Ignis]

61. "Poor Palin" my ass.

If you want someone to pity, how about those of us who have to watch her drag American Politics back into the days of the John Birch Society?

:puke:

Besides which, Republicans couldn't care less about email privacy. The Bush DOJ has been arguing for years that email you have read is just a bunch "temporary, intermediate" files, and is therefore not subject to reasonable expectations of privacy under the Stored Communications Act.

The DOJ, however, strongly disagrees with Theofel. According to its Prosecuting Computer Crimes Manual, the DOJ "continues to question whether Theofel was correctly decided, since little reason exists for treating old email differently than other material a user may choose to store on a network." Rather, the DOJ argues:

If the recipient chooses to retain a copy of the communication on the service provider's system, the retained copy is no longer in "electronic storage" because it is no longer in "temporary, intermediate storage ... incidental to ... electronic transmission," and neither is it a backup of such a communication.

The DOJ's interpretation of the SCA means that any emails that Gov. Palin had already opened (but left on the Yahoo! Mail servers) would not be protected under this email privacy law. This would mean no SCA privacy protection for the majority, if not the entirety, of the Gov. Palin's email messages at issue. As the DOJ acknowledges, "f Theofel's broad interpretation of 'electronic storage' were correct, prosecutions under section 2701 would be substantially less difficult..." On the flip side, if the DOJ were right and Theofel were wrong, any hacker responsible for obtaining access to those emails - or any other individual's opened messages - could not be prosecuted under the SCA.

-- http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/09/doj-view-email-privacy-may-hamper-prosecution-pali

[ann_american2004]

63. honey are you yelling at me? please read past three words b4 responding

I have no love for Palin. Just try'ing to show the ridiculousness of the republican's outrage over this and not other things that they do to us. Jeeze. at least some people got it the first time.

edit: It's all in good DU fun. honestly.:patriot:

[Ignis]

66. You're off to a great start here.

Enjoy your stay.

[ann_american2004]

67. well thank you!

I have since lurking in '04 and I will!
I love this place. Du'ers are BRILLIANT. They make me laugh so much and cry sometimes too. The most fun part is reading other people's posts! You should try it sometime.

[Ignis]

73. Oh, I can read posts just fine. But thanks for the insinuation!

It certainly helps when the poster has a grasp of engaging writing, and is able to use all of the tools available (grammar, spacing, punctuation, etc.) to their best effect to get their point across.

Rambling, jumbled posts that appear to be all over the map may take more attention. And, frankly, fake outrage and ad-hominem attacks aren't the best way to make friends. But YMMV.

I notice you had no comment about the legal framework for Poor Palin's hacking dilema that I cited. Throwing a hissy fit is much more fun and requires no understanding of complex issues, eh?

So it goes. Enjoy your stay.

[Doctor_J]

11. Lots of Sarah-love in this thread

just what Rove was hoping for when he set up this "hack"

[ann_american2004]

14. where? n/t

[Codeine]

47. Quit that.

Expressing some dismay over an ethical lapse is not "Sarah-love."

[Politicalboi]

18. Yes hacking is wrong

But so is using a yahoo account for official business. And so is wiretapping without a warrant. It's just too bad he coughed up this info and didn't keep it longer. Can you just imagine what else he would have gotten with Troopergate and how she really feels about MaGoo. It's really a shame. LOL!

[DissedByBush]

62. He found nothing

He was complaining about that in a post. This was a dangerous stunt that backfired horribly.

[AlphaCentauri]

19. may be someone from the campaign, remember they need attention

they want to keep her in the news

[Ian David]

22. And nobody's investigating Orin Hatch's staffer who hacked Ted Kennedy's email. n/t

[liberal1973]

25. I agree it's bs.

I think some right wing douchebag went into more than just Senator Ted Kennedy's email.

[Jennicut]

33. Yeah, forgot about that. Another double standard by the good old MSM

[ann_american2004]

39. You betcha. ITA n/t

[Democat]

27. When Republicans were hacking Democratic accounts it was ok

When it happens to Palin it's a horrible crime and sexist and racist and whatever else you can think of. :)

Imagine trusting this woman with government secrets. :evilfrown:

Tell your Republican friends - with Palin in charge, the US would have lost the cold war.

[hunter]

40. Imagine Vladimir Putin vs. Sarah Palin

Like a Russian bear on a salmon run:

[nichomachus]

31. Lost in the shuffle -- Palin was breaking the law

By using a private, hackable public email account, Palin was attempting to circumvent the Freedom of Information Act. You cannot conduct government business out of the potential view of the public. Just as it's illegal for members of your city council to go to some bar in the next town and decide on public matters. That is against the law.

[lonestarnot]

45. Funny that. How the real shit get's lost in the shuffle here.

[B2G]

52. That's gonna be tough to prove

based on the hackers emails.

"I really wanted to get something incriminating which I was sure there would be," the e-mails said. "I read though the e-mails ALL OF THEM before I posted, and what I concluded was anticlimactic, there was nothing there, 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."

http://www.crn.com/security/210602693

[Regret My New Name]

56. Was she conducting government business though?

I could have sworn I read it was mostly personal photos and boring stuff like that... I didn't try to find them yet though because, well, I'm lazy and have more interesting cool things to do...like... <I was going to make a joke about getting access to some other political persons email, but I figured that wouldn't be wise because some asshat would either take it seriously or would pretend to take it seriously just to be an asshat>

[B2G]

57. I read them too

and didn't see anything that would indicate she was conducting state business.

Stupid little wanker. I was really hoping for something good.

[Politicub]

35. What a fucking idiot.... the only result of this is giving

Palin some sympathy publicity. And the spotlight needed to be on the economy this week.

Gee, thanks David.

I hope the authorities throw the book at him.

[sudopod]

38. Before we hang this guy

let's be sure he did it. He's only being investigated so far, and his only connection is that his yahoo mail was used as the referrer on the original 4chan post.

However, since 4chan has no authentication mechanism, nor any permanent IP logging process, anyone could have put it up there, and it wouldn't have taken an especially clever troll to do so.

Innocent until proven guilty, etc.

[tv45]

41. Funny Article

Really, is there ANYTHING positive about Sarah Palin AT ALL?! She's the female George W. Bush. She even says "nuc-u-lar". But some American idiots love that crap. Apparently it works:

Following Success of McCain-Palin Model, Bob Barr Names Running Mate Kelly Ripa

[sudopod]

42. Also, Kernell hasn't declared a major yet

Anyone could have done this and pinned it on him. It's just too damn convenient.

Again, innocent till proven guilty. :/

[Regret My New Name]

55. They should check to see if he took computer science III

*based on what I read from you, I'm assuming you know the reference.

[sudopod]

60. I lol'd nt

[progressivebydesign]

43. Hmm. and a few people were here yesterday posting it as fact.

I wish I could remember the names of people who come here and promote these GOP talking points...

[Hannah Bell]

48. The folks at Free Republic were dropping this name the same day the hack was on the web.

Smells funny.

[Regret My New Name]

54. That's not "hacking", that's just silly harmless antics.. :P

Sure does show that Palin isn't too bright though. Anyways, this doesn't even mean the kid had anything to do with it. If someone had his email address then they could have easily just faked being him. If it was him, then he obviously isn't too bright himself since he seemed to have listed an email address that could be traced back to him. Since he was stupid enough to do that, then he probably didn't do much to cover his tracks in other ways... However, if it turns out the person who posted it went through great lengths to cover up everything else, but the email address, then that probably means it's someone trying to be funny (dumbass /b/tards)

I'm sure if he was involved then they find some evidence somewhere.

[icnorth]

68. Relax everyone...

David is only 20 and repubs shouldn't be too exercised about this; after all according to the late Henry Hyde "youthful indiscretions" are permitted well into your 40's.

[rayofreason]

69. FBI serves search warrant against UT student in Palin case

http://www.wbir.com/news/breaking/story.aspx?storyid=64033&catid=29

Bottom line - He is busted. He used a proxy server, but left a trails of breadcrumbs so big that it was impossible NOT to find him.

http://www.tgdaily.com/html_tmp/content-view-39405-108.html

Stupid kid, overenthusiastic Obama supporter, has now handed a propaganda hammer to the other side.

And for those of you pooh-poohing this, just think about what the response would have been on the DU if Obama's or Biden's private email had been broken into by a McCain supporter.

The best outcome? The kid 'fesses up quickly, Palin says "Not a big deal, cut him some slack", Obama says "Thanks. Let's get back to the real issues" and all is forgotten soon.

[Amonester]

74. Follow up: David Kernell pleaded not guilty today.

October 08, 2008
Son of Tenn. Democrat indicted in Palin hacking
Duncan Mansfield

The son of a Democratic Tennessee state lawmaker pleaded not guilty Wednesday to hacking the e-mail account of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

David Kernell, 20, of Knoxville, Tenn. entered the plea in federal court in Knoxville, the same day prosecutors unsealed an indictment charging him with intentionally accessing Palin's e-mail account without authorization.

Kernell, an economics student at the University of Tennessee, was brought into court wearing handcuffs and shackles on his ankles.

He was released without posting bond, but the court limited his computer use to checking his own e-mail and doing class work.

more at: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/news/ap/politics/2008/Oct/08/son_of_tenn__democrat_indicted_in_palin_hacking.html