Media News - Friday, September 19, 2008

FBI on the trail of hackers after Palin’s emails made public

FBI officials and secret service investigators were trying Thursday to track down hackers who broke into an email account belonging to US vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Information from the account, including her emails, digital photos and online address book, was posted on the internet on Tuesday, after an unidentified individual guessed the password to the Alaska governor's personal email account. Screenshots and information were made available on the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, which defended its decision saying the hack proved Palin was violating rules on keeping public records by sending official emails through her private Yahoo account. Although some of the emails, from an account held at gov.palin@yahoo.com, appeared to be private, other screenshots showed messages to state government aides, as well as a draft letter to California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Federal investigators are examining details of the hack to determine the identities of those responsible. The owner of the software used by the hacker or hackers to protect their identity said that he believed it would be possible to identify the culprit. Gabriel Ramuglia told news website The Register: 'Since they were dumb enough to post a full screenshot that showed most of the URL I should be able to find that in my log.' (The Guardian)

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