Listen, Conservatives, Sarah Palin’s emails were hacked by a… how best to describe them?… loose affiliation of millionaires, billionaires, and babies who make up a semi-organized group called “anonymous.” If Mike Kernell’s son was one of the people who hacked Palin’s email, he was only one of a large, large group.
There’s a good article over at Slate explaining it. Here’s the important part–about why it’s so stupid to use Yahoo (or similar programs) if you are a well-known person and you don’t want others looking at your email.
Alaska’s private e-mail system probably does not include a “Did you forget your password?” function. Yahoo, of course, does—and that function presents a key method of entry for hackers. The forgotten-password system is all the more vulnerable for addresses belonging to public figures like Palin. When you forget your e-mail address, Yahoo asks you a “challenge question” to verify your identity before giving you your password; because we know a great deal about Palin (her kids’ names, her husband’s favorite sport, her date of birth), the challenge question might not have been much of a challenge for the hacker. Indeed, that was the case in the other celebrity e-mail theft of recent memory: Paris Hilton’s cell phone was hacked because the thief knew that her pet Chihuahua was named Tinkerbell.
Is it more of a scandal that a politician would be stupid enough to use Yahoo thinking it was secure or that another politician’s kid might have been involved in showing that it isn’t? And what if it turns out that Kernell’s kid was the one who reset the password in order to save Palin further embarrassment? Will that be a “bombshell” or not?
Filed under: Politics and Other Nonsense
There has been no FBI investigation and Mike’s son has NOT been contacted.
He’s one of my best friends, and as of this point, no one as contacted his son. No one has contacted Mike.
If you’d like to talk with him, email and I’ll give you his phone number.
PS–I just got off the phone with Mike, and he asked me to post that no one has contacted him or his son.
i’m certain ‘liberals’ would not resort to such! Ever! The audacity!!!!!11one!!
A feminist blaming the victim?
Priceless.
y’know, hacked account or no hacked account, email is transmitted and stored in plaintext. it’s about as “secure” as a postcard without an envelope, even if nobody breaks your password. you want communications security, you’ll have to polish the point of your egg-shaped head and learn how to use encryption. except that’s not gonna happen, because you’ll never convince all the people you wanna communicate with to get that geeky, so you’re screwed anyway.
Sayuncle, but my point is that ‘anonymous’ isn’t a political group, at least as far as I understand them. I mean, for gods’ sake, they’re hackers and they’re good at it. If they had any desire to really fuck with Palin, they could have faked emails to and from her, intermixed them with legitimate looking emails and then released those screenshots, which they didn’t. So, I don’t believe it was a partisan hack.
Lee, the day I take advice from you on how to be a better feminist, you’d better check me for a pulse.
My original point, which I don’t want to get lost, is that there wasn’t just one hacker. That’s the point of the Slate article. A whole group of folks got into those accounts.
I’m glad Sharon has clarified about Kernell’s son. I urge you all to read her post on the matter.
Thanks to Sharon keeping folks updated.
Until charges are filed, I’ll give the kid the benefit of the doubt, and so should everyone else…on BOTH sides of the aisle.
From what I’ve seen of feminism the past three weeks, I can understand why many women could care less about being a ‘better feminist.’
I’m not worried about being a bad feminist. You shouldn’t worry either.
If she didn’t want to be hacked, she shouldn’t have worn such a short skirt.
I thought Governor Palin thought that there’s no right to privacy in this country?
You boys. Good lord, you’d deliberately misread the Bible if it gave you 2,000 years of hegemony…. Oh wait.
So, Lee, Ex, come here. Cuddle right up next to my voluptuous tits and take hold of my hands and let me walk you through this slowly. It is wrong to crack someone’s email. Even if you think they are a giant douche. It is also illegal. So, it was wrong of whoever did that to Sarah Palin to do so. I thought that went without saying but let me reassure you that I believe that to be true.
So, why am I not stomping up and down on this Kernell kid? First of all, because the person(s) who cracked Palin’s email were able to so easily crack it because it’s Yahoo. The email account folks have worked their detective magic on to link up with Kernell’s kid? Also a Yahoo account. What have we learned from this little episode about Yahoo accounts? They are easy to get into if you know just a little bit about someone–like the little bit you might find out about a kid whose dad is a politician.
Could he, at 15, have set up a yahoo account that he used pretty regularly only to, by the time he was 20, have left it by the wayside where some other jackass picked it up? Maybe so.
Even assuming that the internet detectives are thorough and correct and that that address once belonged to Kernell’s kid, I am going to wait and see whether he still had the only access to it.
Second, as I tried to explain in the post, even if this was initially just one jackass (who may or may not have been Kernell’s kid), once he or she got into the account, a ton of people got access to the account (at least that’s my understanding of events). Singling out one person for punishment, as if that takes care of the whole mess, would be stupid.
So, there, there, boys. No one is blaming Palin or saying that this is her fault.
It’ll be pretty easy to trace the http address of the user, giving location and time. Unless our nefarious hacker(s) only connected to the account on public library computers, without getting caught on the security cameras, they will be identified.
It’ll be pretty easy to trace the http address of the user, giving location and time.
The HTTP address? I didn’t know Hypertext Transfer Protocols had addresses. I think you mean the IP address, which may or may not be easy to track depending on just how nefarious the hacker(s) in question are.
The issue that nobody seems to care about isn’t that she was hacked. It’s that she was using a non-government email address to conduct government business. She was skirting the system to avoid having a paper trail which raises more than a few ethical questions. The fact that doing so put Alaska state interests in a vulnerable is another level on top of it, but seriously, let’s just start with the foundation of the problem.
What if, as I suspect, she used Yahoo to conduct public business because…wait for it…she’s a politically inexperienced dumbass who is just a little sneaky but not bright enough to pull it off? By all means, let’s hand her the football. What’s the worst that could happen?
hiding one’s IP address is quite doable, and not necessarily even hard. depending on how many felonies one is willing to commit at a time, those addresses can be hidden beyond any reasonable effort to recover them, even if we make the paranoid assumption that the better-known anonymous proxy networks are in fact false flag operations.
dolphin’s point is far, far more pertinent. as is bridgett’s; if she wanted to use technological means to skirt the system and avoid accountability, the least she damn well should have done was hire a knowledgeable geek to advise her on appropriate technology to do it with. what she actually did do not only makes her look like a small-time crook, it makes her look like a bumbling, incompetent small-time crook.
(and here i was all set to dislike Obama because he hails from the famously corrupt Chicago machine… oy vey, talk about me getting to vote for the lesser evil!)
NN, that’s a morally inconsistent, bumbling, incompetent small-time crook. Since she’s willing to break the law to ensure the privacy of her own activities, which happen to affect the res publica but completely unwilling to grant others the same privacy to act even in personal matters.
I mean, I hate hacking, but where is her moral basis for objecting to it?
But it’s already pretty well accepted that the “hackers” are not high-level hacker-types, so it’s unlikely they went through what it would take to really hide their IP address.
> Unless our nefarious hacker(s) only connected to the account on public library computers
Two words: war driving. Also, “tor” (”The Onion Router”, not the publisher).
> let’s just start with the foundation of the problem.
OMG! You used a cosmetics term! You just called Sara Palin a pig!
I believe that there are lasers on the tundra, lasers on the tundra somewhere…
Is that why the top of Russia looks like cheese?
> Is that why the top of Russia looks like cheese?
I think that was glacial activity. Or maybe the Tunguska Event was not such an unusual occurence up there.
She was skirting the system to avoid having a paper trail which raises more than a few ethical questions.
Hello…
All the emails on that account have already been sifted through, and guess what… There were no incriminating emails! In fact, this proves that she was using the email account for personal and sometimes political (which is different from governmental) reasons, which is what you’re supposed to do!! This is fact helps vouch for her.
Any illegal emails would have been publicized by now, dont cha’ think?
And my dearest B, while your volupturous tits do seriously tempt me, Let me use, mostly, your words:
Is it more of a scandal that a [woman] would be stupid enough to [walk through that park at night] thinking it was secure…
Ack! Skirting the system! It’s sexism, sexism I tell you!
In other words, Lee…the room ain’t buyin’ what you’re trying to sell.
Well, pearls before swine (with lipstick)
But it’s already pretty well accepted that the “hackers” are not high-level hacker-types, so it’s unlikely they went through what it would take to really hide their IP address.
As far as I’m concerned, this is really an irrelevant issue, but it is a lot easier than I think you’re thinking it is to conceal your IP. The kids where TheBoyfriend™ used to teach regularly accessed blocked websites on the school computers via proxy, and these are the kids who aren’t good enough to make it in regular school; a far, far cry from computer geeks.
Is it more of a scandal that a [woman] would be stupid enough to [walk through that park at night] thinking it was secure…
The difference is that it’s not against the rules for a woman to walk through that park at night. It IS against the rules to violate security protocol by using an unsecure personal email address for official communications. At least, it is
Dolphin, the account that was broken into happened to only contain emails that were of a personal or political manner.
There were absolutely no official government business found among those emails.
Repeat: There were absolutely no official government business found among those emails.
dolphin’s last seems to have been cut off in mid-sentence.
that said, i doubt there are security rules against using email as Palin did. if this was truly a security issue, i doubt she’d be able to use email at all, given that SMTP is a fundamentally non-private protocol.
what might be at issue is open government / freedom of information rules, if she was conducting government business using non-governmental resources (i’m not willing to take Lee’s word for it that she wasn’t); or possibly campaigning rules, if she was doing non-government political business that way. also, ethical issues concerning accountability of whatever business she was conducting, if there’s even a hint she was using third-party servers so as to avoid leaving traces of what was going on.
(an aside… that last point is something that people might do because they think it would work, based on how most folks normally use computers and the common assumption that “the internet is anonymous”. it’s a misconception, of course. once you know a little more about how servers work behind the scenes to provide you with this “anonymous internet”, it becomes clear just how bad of a misconception this really is.
there’s no guarantee whatsoever that any third-party server will not store a much more permanent record of what you use their resources to do than you yourself ever would, had you used your own hardware instead. in fact, any third party service provider would be stupid not to keep good back-ups for customer service purposes alone. trying to hide your doings from future subpoenas that way is manifestly silly.)
There were absolutely no official government business found among those emails.
That’s not what the news is reporting. If she was just using her Yahoo! account to chat with her mom about the weather, this wouldn’t be a story.
NN,
I know that at least some federal government agencies prohibit personal email use as a security issue though I suspect it has more to do with reducing the risk of infecting their networks than anything else.
Lee, I think you’re wrong about that. Here’s what the Washington Post is reporting:
“Among the e-mails released… were several from Frye asking a state official whether private e-mail accounts and messages sent to BlackBerry devices are immune to subpoena, then reporting the answer to the governor and her husband, Todd, who also uses a Yahoo! mail address.
One e-mail referenced “Draft letter to Governor Schwarzenegger / Container Tax” and another said “DPS Personnel and Budget Issues,” an apparent reference to the Alaska Department of Public Safety.”
So, it appears that she not only conducted government business on her Yahoo! account, but she did so, at least in part, with an eye to making those records “private” and outside of what could be subpoenaed when she was doing things she knew were dodgy.
IANAL, but i would be massively amazed if any non-classified piece of information reasonably germane to a court case at issue was ever legally immune from subpoena. so chalk up yet another mark in the “incompetent and bumbling” column. (any legal beagles in the audience care to correct me…?)
I agree that one can subpoena anything non-classified, but since she already knew her public records were going to be subpoenaed, she had an aide inquire about whether her private records would also be fair game and seems to have thought that this was a “back channel” that didn’t count, somehow.
If you’re following the legal ins and outs of this, she has tried to invoke “deliberative process executive proceeding” privilege on both her government e-mail and her private e-mail. That’s a form of privilege that claims you can’t share the e-mail because confidential employment information or advice will be disclosed to the public. However, since she cc:ed Todd on most of her e-mail (effectively making a practice of sharing privileged information with a non-elected official) and used the non-governmental Yahoo account to conduct public business (a non-secure account), she’s effectively waived her immunity.
Bumbling is entirely too mild.
Still, Alaskans don’t have much respect for the power of the subpoena. Not one of the thirteen people summoned to today’s hearing showed up.
Bridgette, the full quote from that story is:
“Among the e-mails released as part of the records request in June were several from Frye asking a state official whether private e-mail accounts and messages sent to BlackBerry”
There are two accounts here. One that is a center of controversy due to Troopergate, and a separate one that is the one that was broken into, possibly by this guy in Memphis.
There may have been some inappropriate ones in the previous account, and in fact, that investigation is ongoing.
The one that was broken into had a whole bunch of folks on that message board go through it, and that one had merely friend-to-friend correspondence, and one or two I believe that involved her and a political ally talking about a radio host up there that said something they didn’t like, which is definitely political, but not government biz.
One of the issues with using an unofficial mail server, is that while the government servers have (and honor) a “retention policy” in order to fulfill FOIA and state “sunshine laws” (at least we have these in FL), Yahoo! and other unofficial sites do not have the same policies. When you tell Yahoo! to delete an email, they are allowed to completely erase it immediately (whether they actually do this, or how long they elsewise hold onto those ‘deleted’ emails, I don’t know). But conducting official business on any system that does not provide at least the mandatory retention period is a violation of those laws.
It’s true that there are two sets of records in discussion. There are definitely public business records in her previously subpoenaed Yahoo account; I don’t know anyone but you who disputes that. She was doing it to try to avoid a subpoena on what she thought she could claim was private e-mail. She also continued to share privileged information with her husband and (by extension) his business associates.
However, in the second set, what we learn is that she was continuing to use her Yahoo account for public business and political communication for another couple of months, even after the Alaskan attorney general had explicitly warned her against doing so.
The content of the letters thus far released is more than merely banter between friends. As far as the “political ally” — it was with her Lieutenant Governor. Governor Palin was pissed that anyone demanded that they should release their public records and they discussed at length his ongoing Congressional campaign, in which she promised her enthusiastic support. Another one is from a Wasilla crony from her church who had been appointed by Palin to the Alaska Public Defender’s Agency (despite her lack of a law degree) and appointed by Palin to the Alaska Advisory Board on Alcoholism — she wants assurance that she’s going to keep her government job if Palin goes to Washington. Sounds very much like government bidness to me.
(effectively making a practice of sharing privileged information with a non-elected official)
Ha! That’s funny. You mean like Hillary Clinton in the White House?
Yeah, exactly like that. Except that Todd Palin’s distinguishing accomplishment in life is that he can drive a snowmobile real fast.
> effectively making a practice of sharing privileged information with a non-elected official
Unless that information is “classified”, she is allowed to share it with a non-elected official. However, she cannot share it with a non-elected ‘official’ who is also not her attorney, and then claim “Executive Privilege” and refuse to turn it over to anyone who requests it under the FOIA.
> You mean like Hillary Clinton in the White House?
Did Bill Clinton ever assert Executive Privilege, and try to keep documents from, say, Congressional Investigators that he had shared with Hilary?
Yeah, he did. He tried to claim executive privilege in the Whitewater investigation about e-mails and conversations he had had with Hillary; however, he lost in federal court in the early 1990s. Bush, too, has tried to expand executive privilege, but the very circulatability of e-mail has undermined the administrations ability to claim this privilege. Instead, they’ve resorted to regularly destroying e-mail records (oopsie…did you need to look at those to determine that we fired those lawyers illegally? So sorry…)
Wow! I don’t even know where to begin to answer you indifferent children. There’s just so much.
Golly, Ex, don’t keep us all waiting like this….
Ahhhh geek talk and privacy concerns. Makes me want to go read some Doctrow.