Hackers broke into Sarah Palin's Yahoo account and posted screenshots and personal emails, reports the AP. Rick Davis, campaign manager for the McCain-Palin campaign, issued a statement about the hack: "This is a shocking invasion of the Governor's privacy and a violation of law. The matter has been turned over to the appropriate authorities and we hope that anyone in possession of these emails will destroy them. We will have no further comment."
And for real: why don't we hear more often about hackers being punished? Like TrainReq, who broke into Miley Cyrus's phone - he's still happily blogging away.
So what are the rules? LawForKids.org has a summary:
E-mail is typically not secured at all and is transmitted in plain computer text over the Internet. In this case, it is most likely that someone would still need to 'hack' a computer system to gain this access, but it would be harder to charge the offender with something like theft, because the e-mail isn't secure when it is being sent through the public network. I mention this mostly so that we all remember that e-mail is totally unsecured and confidential information should never be sent through e-mail . . . If the operator of a computer hasn't taken care to password protect their computer systems and software, then they would have very little expectation of privacy in their information. And in this case there likely would be no punishment.
Wow. Is that true? Who wants to bet a loooot of email passwords get changed today?
Reader Comments ( Page 2 of 2)
16. I don't like your password -- control freak -- I'll use my own thank you...
charlie baker at 2:43AM on Sep 20th 2008
17. I'm a Democrat and I think that hacking someone's account is awful, plus it's a crime. How can we accuse the Republicans of dirty hands but we can't keep our hands clean either? This kid isn't some nobody--he's the son of a State Representative in Tennessee and an Obama supporter! This is an outrage and if the law means anything, he should get hit with it!
If Bristol Palin hacked Obama's email account and spread the contents everywhere, the press would be howling about his privacy being invaded from here to Election Day, but this little creep hacking Sarah Palin's email is spun by the press to be all her fault because she didn't secure her password right? What has become of my political party?
MrsRSW at 6:29PM on Sep 20th 2008
18. Hi.I am a hacker. I can get you a myspace, facebook, aol, yahoo, msn/hotmail,gmail....etc password. I do charge a fee to get a password. Once I do get it I will show you proof I have it. Are you interested? E-mail me at fordf202006@yahoo.com
Ford at 7:26AM on Sep 29th 2008