Web-based e-mail users take note: Use strong passwords. The private e-mail account of Republican vice presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was apparently hacked earlier this week, and screen captures of e-mail messages, family photos, and the e-mail inbox were posted on a Web site.
Tracing the Hacker
The alleged screenshots were published on the Wikileaks Web site, which publishes leaked government, corporate and religious documents and protects the identity of the sources. From there, the e-mail spread throughout the Internet.
Hacking into an e-mail account may be punishable by up to five years in prison under federal law. Local statutes may also have been broken.
According to a report in the Register, a proxy server operated by Ctunnel.com in Fairbanks, Alaska, was used to anonymously attack the Yahoo account. IP addresses from incoming users are allegedly held in cache on the Ctunnel server at another facility in Chicago and could identify the hacker.
In fact, in a post discovered on a hacker-oriented Web site, a user named "rubico" posted, "THIS [hack into Palin's account] was serious business, yes I was behind a proxy, only one ... I didn't know how to [download] all that stuff, so I posted the pass[word], and then promptly deleted everything."
Getting to the Chicago server may not be problematic for the FBI or Secret Service. Charles Silverman, a Chicago-based attorney, said it all depends on whether the government wanted a warrant or a subpoena. "The main difference being that warrants need probable cause, whereas subpoenas merely need reasonable suspicion," he said.
Legal consequences for the hacker may be dire. Silverman said, "If the e-mail search or release was done in a threatening manner, or seemed designed to intimidate or release potential security information, then the Secret Service could make an arrest. If this was done for embarrassment and/or...

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