Posted on 09/17/2008 9:42:56 PM PDT by Kaslin
Left-wing internet hackers have been credited for illegally breaking into GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s email.
Members of what has been described as the “cyber vigilante” group Anonymous broke into Palin’s personal Yahoo email account and uploaded stolen information to the Internet. Gawker.com, a highly trafficked gossip site, took five screenshots of the stolen cache and promoted it on their site.
The screenshots included two full emails and Palin’s inbox list. In one email Palin was critical of a talk radio host who was giving her Lt. Governor, who is currently running against Don Young for Congress, a hard time over tax issues. In the other, a woman who Palin named to the state’s drug and alcohol advisory board sent prayers to Palin and told her not to let the “negative press wear you down."
Personal family information was obtained as well. A photo of baby Trig Palin was found in the email cache, uploaded from daughter Bristol Palin's cell phone and sent to her mother's email account. Bloggers at Gawker lifted Bristol’s cellphone number from the emails and called it to confirm it was hers. They recorded audio of Bristol’s voicemail and promoted it on their site. Gawker bloggers also reprinted Palin's husband Todd's and son Track's personal email addresses.
Left-wing operatives have been seeking Palin’s personal emails in relation to the “Troopergate” controversy, in which Palin’s foes believed she abused her power as Alaskan Governor to fire one of her political appointees. Palin recently released official email communication, but has refused to make her private emails publicly available to the chagrin of those seeking to bring her down in the inquiry.
Nothing in the emails appears to be politically damaging to Palin.
McCain-Palin 2008 Campaign Manager Rick Davis issued a statement calling the email hackery “a shocking invasion of the Governor's privacy and a violation of law.” He expressed hope that “anyone in possession of these emails will destroy them.”
Federal law strictly prohibits anyone from accessing email without proper authorization, but is unclear how those would be treated who make those emails publicly available.
Gawker knows full well the information was illegally obtained and stands by their blog posts. “Here are the screenshots of the emails saved before the account went dark, along with the contact list. It’s newsworthy and we will not be taking it down!” the site said.
More coverage of this story on the Townhall Blog.
I thought the account that was hacked was her PERSONAL Yahoo e-mail account!
I went there, and was grimly amused that these "champions of internet privacy" were furious over the hacking of Palin's mailbox.
Why were they furious? Was it because of this illegal violation of privacy?
Hell no. They were furious that the hackers at /b/ only managed to obtain such a tiny amount of information, only downloading and posting a couple of the emails' contents, before the mailbox was shut down, and they fretted that some "smoking guns" in those other emails that could destroy Gov. Palin may have been bypassed. Others were cursing that the account's password wasn't handed over to someone more worthy, who could stealthily monitor Gov. Palin's private mailbox between now and the election, looking for anything useful to destroy her with.
Here's a typical despairing comment (this one from gawker.com): The power to bring down the McCain campaign was in the mountain dew coated hands of a 17 year old hacker. What could have possibly gone wrong?
Apparently the original hacker only got a little ways into viewing the mailbox before trumpeting his triumphant accomplishment on his favorite website. Some "good samaritan" saw the posting soon after, and logged in and changed Sarah's p/w, then sent an email to a close friend on Sarah's contacts list to tell her to warn Sarah. He then inadvertently posted the new password on that same website (he didn't notice it was in a screenshot he posted). But soon after, so many hackers tried to simultaneously login to Gov. Palin's yahoo email account that yahoo apparently locked the account for 24 hours. (And it's now been deleted).
Here's an interesting exchange on reddit.com: I thought Redditors were supposed to be proponents of online privacy?
Reply to above: There is a subtle difference in that the email account was used for official government business, making it part of public record. It doesn't make it right, but it's not the same thing exactly.
("Doesn't make it right"? What then? "Shades of right"?)
Another reply to the first guy: There's a subtle difference here that you're missing. When private files are monitored or simply handed over and you have no choice or in the matter or no way to fight against it, then we take issue. When you're dumb enough to use a free email account with sh**ty security settings and someone burns you on it, then you just got owned.
Great reply to that reply: ...or alternatively ... When it's convenient for me I believe X, when it's convenient for me I also believe NOT X. When someone points out the contradiction I justify it by saying there's a "subtle difference" they haven't understood. This way I can do whatever I want, whenever I want and I feel no psychological discomfort when I contradict my own moral and ethical framework.
Going back to the discussion at gawker.com, here's another telling quote: On the one hand, wow. Awesome. On the other hand... this won't do much to dissuade her supporters of the persecution complex they've developed of late, now will it?
That, my friends, is as close as a liberal will ever come to admitting that they've done something wrong!
And here is a sad, sad, sad posting: Ok, sad thing first: a good Samaritan reset the password and tried to alert Sarah. But he also posted the new password, causing multiple people to try to log in at once, freezing the account for 24 hours. And now, the account has been deleted!
How tragic. You're all allowed to break out the tissue box and saw away on your Air Violins.
I noticed that a lot of weblinks that were purported to have copies of the stolen documents did NOT have them, just hours after people posted links to them. Obviously a lot of sys admins want no part in a lawsuit or police action, no matter how remote the possibility is, and are shutting down those "mirrors". But Gawker.com was a glaring exception, and even reveled in publishing the documents as well as a recording of Bristol Palin's voicemail greeting.
I kept refreshing their webpage to see who was advertising there. Virtually all the ads were for resident "artists" pushing mostly ridiculous-looking photoshopped art, but then an ad for an upcoming movie "Choke" popped up. I clicked on it, and it took me to foxsearchlight.com. Under an article pushing all their upcoming movies I posted this comment:
Hello, The only reason I am here is because I see you support (through your advertising dollars) gawker.com, the website which proudly displays Gov. Palin's hacked emails, her private email contacts list, private family photos, her daughter's private cell phone number, and more.
Apparently you have no problem using $$ to support illegal invasions of privacy. In consequence, I will do nothing now or in the future to support you.
I have noted your upcoming movies: Choke, Secret Life of Bees, Notorious, Slumdog Millionaire, My Life In Ruins, Amelia, and 500 Days of Summer, and will make it a point to not see any of them, and to forward this information to like-minded people, requesting they not patronize your movies as well.
I am willing to change my mind, and occasionally will revisit to see if you are redirecting your advertising $$ elsewhere.
Good day.
No response as of yet, 5 hours later.
There are two kinds of hacker.
WHITE HAT hacker:
A person who enjoys learning details of a programming language or system
A person who enjoys actually doing the programming rather than just theorizing about it
A person capable of appreciating someone else’s hacking
A person who picks up programming quickly
A person who is an expert at a particular programming language or system, as in “Unix hacker”.
Steve Job is a hacker. Bill Gates is a hacker. You can call me right-winger and I can consider myself a hacker but not someone who would crack password of someone else private e-mail account and post its contents in the Internet.
The term hacker is used in popular media to describe someone who attempts to break into computer systems. Typically, this kind of hacker would be a proficient programmer or engineer with sufficient technical knowledge to understand the weak points in a security system, i.e., a BLACK HAT hacker. Kevin Mitnick was a BLACK HAT hacker, by the way.
I am a down to earth guy who believes in law and order. I’m not prone to believe in conspiracies. And I believe truth wins over evil. But having experienced the likes of Clinton who would defile the Oval Office rug, Obama who introduced me to his “God d*#@ America” “reverend”, Harry “the war is lost” Reed, and the rest of the double-talking, vindictive, and self-serving Democrats like Pelosi, Charlie R, and Barnie, I now believe there has become an underground network of judges, politicians, left-wing businessmen, community organizers, newspaper editors, and beady-eyed professors who make it nearly impossible for good people to get justice. We are screwed if these bastards take over in January.
Heck, look at the witch hunts the morons in Congress conducted against oil companies, microsoft, baseball, and the list goes on. But where is the zeal to investigate and prosecute wrong-doing at Fanny Mae?
Left-wing internet hackers have been credited for illegally breaking into GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s email.
Members of what has been described as the “cyber vigilante” group Anonymous broke into Palin’s personal Yahoo email account and uploaded stolen information to the Internet. Gawker.com, a highly trafficked gossip site, took five screenshots of the stolen cache and promoted it on their site.
The screenshots included two full emails and Palin’s inbox list. In one email Palin was critical of a talk radio host who was giving her Lt. Governor, who is currently running against Don Young for Congress, a hard time over tax issues. In the other, a woman who Palin named to the state’s drug and alcohol advisory board sent prayers to Palin and told her not to let the “negative press wear you down."
Personal family information was obtained as well. A photo of baby Trig Palin was found in the email cache, uploaded from daughter Bristol Palin's cell phone and sent to her mother's email account. Bloggers at Gawker lifted Bristol’s cellphone number from the emails and called it to confirm it was hers. They recorded audio of Bristol’s voicemail and promoted it on their site. Gawker bloggers also reprinted Palin's husband Todd's and son Track's personal email addresses...
One way to get rid of the channers for good is simply flood the chans with moles. Hell, I used to troll there just to get dirt on the chans before I got bored and decided that life with my girlfriend was worth more than bothering a bunch of nerdy manga fanboys.
This is political terrorism, different only in terms of severity from burning a cross on a politician’s lawn to scare them or any other Republican.
“(Can they refuse the secret service?)”
Unless served with a subpoena, the AP can absolutely refuse the Secret Service. Even if subpoenaed, the AP may refuse to hand over the emails in order to protect their source. Of course, that kinda move can land someone at AP in the clink.
Please help me out here. The libs are accusing Gov. Palin of illegally using her personal email account to conceal State communication? They are claiming that she is hiding information that could not be used as evidence since it’s on her personal address. Do I understand correctly?
Federal law enforcement must prosecute these people and make an example out of them. They are not "pranksters." They are felons who must be thrown into federal prison.
We need to reach into the basements and bedrooms where these nerdy cockroaches reside and show them Mom can't step in and keep "little Johnny" out of jail if he breaks federal law.
The obvious result will be a clear warning to other cynical hacker-punks who think these crimes are funny.
We'll see how these cyber punks like doing hard time in the slammer.
If our law enforcement fails to control these crimes, the American people will ultimately have to either take enforcement into their own hands by launching an all-out war against this human trash or abandon the Internet as a means of communication.
Thank you! Now I don’t have to worry about getting any work done today, lol.
If this somehow gets tied to the Obama campaign, you can stick a fork in him and call him done.
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