Posted on 09/22/2008 7:43:39 AM PDT by Tennessee Nana
A Grand Jury in Chattanooga could reportedly hear testimony this week into the alleged hacking of the personal e-mail of Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
The Knoxville News-Sentinel said the FBI is investigating the possibility that a University of Tennessee student who is the son of a state legislator from Memphis carried out the hacking.
The report said FBI agents raided the apartment of David Kernell early Sunday morning.
It said friends of Kernell were interviewed, and said they are due to testify about the case in Chattanooga this week.
A federal grand jury is set to convene in Chattanooga on Tuesday.
Kernell is the son of Memphis Democrat Mike Kernell, who acknowledged that his son is being investigated.
The hacker reportedly got into the Palin Yahoo e-mail account by guessing certain password information correctly, including the fact that she met her husband in high school.
The McCain/Palin campaign called the hacking "a shocking invasion of the Governor's privacy and a violation of law."
I hope they put this little shit in jail for a long time. It will send a good message to the next one.
Thanks for the post. Seems like the guy got lucky with a few guesses. It looks like his luck just ran out.
They won’t do anything to him.
Ooops sorry...UT/Knoxville...
TN PING
The U.S. Department of Justice confirmed this morning that its investigation into the alleged hacking of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s personal e-mail account now includes Knoxville.
The “investigatory activity took place late Saturday night and early Sunday morning in Knoxville,” according to Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney.
She would not comment on whether that activity included an FBI search of the apartment of University of Tennessee Knoxville student David Kernell.
Kernell, 20, is the son of state Rep. Mike Kernell, D-Memphis.
She also would not confirm if anyone was served with a subpoena to appear before a federal grand jury in Chattanooga.
Rep. Kernell declined last week to respond to online allegations that his son had accessed Palin’s personal e-mail account.
“My son’s the one in question, and I can’t comment on him,” Kernell said.
Bloggers have alleged that the younger Kernell is the one who has claimed responsibility for breaking into the Alaska governor’s e-mail account.
The evidence is tenuous. In fact, one of the first blogs to allege that the son of a Democratic politician was responsible relied on e-mail tips and described its evidence as “pretty thin.”
On Wednesday, however, the FBI and Secret Service launched an investigation that includes agents in Memphis. C.M. Sturgis, a spokesman for the Memphis FBI branch, confirmed late Thursday that his office is involved.
“All I can say is that a matter was referred to us from the Anchorage, Alaska, office. An investigation at this time is being coordinated out of FBI headquarters in the Department of Justice,” Sturgis said.
Also Wednesday, a person using the e-mail address rubico10@yahoo.com posted a message to an online forum about how he used Yahoo Mail’s password-recovery tool to obtain Palin’s password.
“I am the lurker who did it, and I would like to tell the story,” rubico10@yahoo.com wrote on the Web site.
The hacker later explained how he reviewed Palin’s email messages one by one: “I read though the emails … 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.”
The hacker used easily available information about Palin to answer questions Yahoo! Mail uses to verify identity. The hacker answered the first two questions easily - birth date and ZIP code. The third question - “Where did you meet your spouse?” - required the hacker to research the answer until he found the correct one, Wasilla High.
“It took ser iously 45 (minutes) on Wikipedia and Google to find t he i n fo,” rubico10@ yahoo.com wrote.
After changing the e-mail password to “popcorn,” the hacker then posted the username and password to 4chan, allowing others to access Palin’s e-mail.
In Nashville on Thursday, Rep. Kernell would neither confirm nor deny his son was involved in hacking Palin’s e-mail account. Although Kernell said he was aware of claims that his son was responsible, the politician would not address any of them.
“Father-son relationship,” Kernell explained.
The longtime legislator would not say whether rubico10@yahoo.com is his son’s e-mail address.
“I can’t comment on my son,” he repeated.
Asked if he has been contacted by investigators, Kernell responded: “Me, no.”
“I can’t say about my son,” he added. “That doesn’t mean he has or hasn’t been contacted.”
Although FBI and Secret Services officials have not identified suspects in the case, they are reviewing logs that could confirm the hacker’s identity.
Federal investigators want to speak with Gabriel Ramuglia of Athens, Ga., who operates an Internet anonymity service the hacker used. Ramuglia told The Associated Press on Thursday that he was reviewing his logs and promised to turn over any helpful information.
The hacker accessed the Alaska governor’s private email account after the news media disclosed e-mail indicating Palin’s administration used private e-mail accounts as a way to work outside Alaska’s Open Records Act.
David Kernell excelled at chess while at Germantown High School and won the 2004 Tennessee Open Scholastic Chess Championship.
Internet searches show someone uses the handle “rubico” on chess Web sites. In addition, an inactive blog, with one post dated May 2004, included “rubico” as a username. Its author identified himself as a chess player from Memphis named David.
More details as they develop online and in Tuesday’s News Sentinel.
Staff writer Trevor Aaronson of the Commercial Appeal of Memphis and the Associated Press contributed to this
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/sep/22/justice-palin-e-mail-hacking-probe-includes-knoxvi/
Democrat was conveniently left out.
If you have a yahoo account, dont put down your true date of birth or zip code. That will foil this sort of thing.
The evidence can be almost rock solid if they subpoena the server logs from his ISP and track that he went through the proxy server in question to post his report about the email and that he accessed Governor Palin's Yahoo accounts. About the only thing he could argue is that someone else accessed his computer or modem without his knowledge.
The investigation shouldn’t end with the kid. He has direct ties to the Democrat party and was most likely being groomed or trained to move higher up in the party. This little event will be great on the resume of his scummy pals.
Alleged has to be the most misused and overused word amongst the press corp in regards to crimes committed. The hacking occurred, period. David Kernell, may be the 'alleged' hacker, but that hacking itself is no longer 'alleged'.
Checkmate?
Music to read about this pre-meditating POS...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Quhj6PEboCU
He’s slick.
Who’s your daddy? WHOOOOOOOS YOUR DAAAAAAAADY ? ! ! !
Assuming he is the one who did it and assuming there is still a prosecutor in America who will go after a Democrat - what’s the worst that can happen to him?
Thanks!
No, a UT/Knoxville student, but the grand jury will be held in Chattanooga for some reason.
Not a good week to be a Tennessee Volunteer.
I use the zip from a place I lived years ago and I use another family member’s birthdate with the birthyear of another family member.
I have lived lots of places and I have a good sized family so it should be pretty difficult to figure it out.... or so I hope.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.