Bizarre, Criminal law, Politics, Society

Politician’s Son Indicted for Hacking into Gov. Palin’s Email Account

David Kernell, 20, of Knoxville, Tenn., the son of state Rep. Mike Kernell, has been indicted for hacking of the e-mail account of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. He should have known that only the Administration can hack into accounts and intercept calls on citizens without a warrant.

Kernell was indicted for intentionally accessing without authorization Palin’s e-mail account. He could face a maximum of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and a three-year term of supervised release. He should get less as a first offender if convicted. This was a stupid act and deserves some punishment, but five years would be a bit stiff.

This case follows the criminal indictment of former anchor nd former “Access Hollywood” anchor Larry Mendte for snooping into the e-mail of his former co-anchor, Alycia Lane.

For the full story, click here.

For a copy of the criminal complaint, click here

7 thoughts on “Politician’s Son Indicted for Hacking into Gov. Palin’s Email Account”

  1. I also wonder if the fact that the emails recovered show Sarah Palin has been systematically violating the Open Records Act can be used to convict Palin. It has been pointed out that a similar set of facts in an 11th circuit court case resulted in conviction of the victem of the hacks. The authorities actually told the hacker (yes he wrote code;~)) “You have not hacked into any computer at the request of the FBI or other law (enforcement) agency. You have not acted as an agent for the FBI or other law enforcement agency. Therefore, the information you have collected can be used in our criminal trials”

    http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/tech-news/?p=178

  2. OCD is absolutely correct. The kid did not “hack” anything. The kid wrote no code, nor soldered any wire.
    “Cracking” is the correct term. Hack has become a pejorative word, but it is not. It usually is a not-so-elegant technical work around to solve a problem.

  3. Well OCD, they do call that hacking. Password cracking, guessing is in fact the first forms of hacking, back in the day of the blue box.

    But I do know what you mean. It wasn’t like he did anything technically proficient. In fact, he did it from his own home.

    Remember what Serial Killer told Joey in the movie “Hackers” when he hacked a bank from his home?

    “dude, thats universally stupid dude…”

  4. Can we PLEASE stop calling this hacking. The headline should read: Politician’s Son Indicted for Guessing Palin’s Remarkably Stupid Password Security Question Using a Completely Unsecure and Moronic “Security” Feature on Yahoo.

    OK, that’s better.

  5. I was sort of hoping they’d give him a medal or something.

    😐

    Talk show at least.

  6. I hope this case is adjudicated as quickly as possible and then when he is sentenced, the ruling used as precedent for the first of many, many other lawsuits.

  7. This case is certainly seeing quick action by DOJ! HMMMM…you mean they can prosecute these types of crime? Who knew?

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