 |
Chronicle Journal on Facebook
| Week in Review |
| Yesterday |
| 2 days ago |
| 3 days ago |
| 4 days ago |
| 5 days ago |
| Games! | |
 Canadian Crossword |
|
| PlayFour! |
|
| Word Roundup |
|
|
|
|
| Local | National | World | Technology | Travel | Health | Oddities | Careers | Classifieds | Obituaries | Letters to the Editor | Editorials |
| More Links | tbayjobline | TbayWeddings | Play Games! | New! eVents Calendar | Advertise with Us | Contact Us |
|---|
| Other Links | Movie Times | Airport | Bus Schedule | Road Conditions | Library | Weather |
|---|
WASHINGTON - The FBI searched the residence of the son of a Democratic state legislator in Tennessee over the weekend looking for evidence linking the young man to the hacking of Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s personal email account, two law enforcement officials told The Associated Press on Monday. David Kernell, 20, has not returned repeated phone calls or emails from the AP since last week. His lawyer said Monday the family is going through a difficult period. "The Kernell family wants to do the right thing, and they want what is best for their son," said lawyer Wade V. Davies of Knoxville. "We are confident that the truth will emerge as we go through the process." Kernell is the son of state Representative Mike Kernell, a Memphis Democrat and chairman of Tennessee’s House Government Operations Committee. The father declined last week to discuss the possibility his son might be involved in the case. "I had nothing to do with it, I had no knowledge or anything," Mike Kernell told the AP last week. "I was not a party to anything of this nature at all," he added. "I wasn’t in on this - and I wouldn’t know how to do anything like that." No one answered the door at Mike Kernell’s home in Memphis on Monday, and he did not return repeated phone calls Monday from the AP. The apartment the FBI searched is in a complex about five blocks from the University of Tennessee campus in a neighbourhood popular with students. No one around the complex Monday knew David Kernell, who is a student at the university, or saw the FBI agents over the weekend. A hacker last week broke into one of the Yahoo Inc. email accounts that Palin uses, revealing as evidence a few inconsequential personal messages she has received since John McCain selected her as his running mate. The McCain campaign confirmed the break-in and called it a "shocking invasion of the governor’s privacy and a violation of law." Palin used "gov.sarah" in one of her Yahoo email addresses she sometimes uses to conduct state business. The hacker targeted her separate "gov.palin" account. During the break-in, the hacker used an Internet address that traced to David Kernell’s apartment complex in Knoxville. The FBI obtained logs Saturday establishing the connection from Gabriel Ramuglia of Athens, Georgia, who operates an Internet anonymity service used by the hacker. Ramuglia told the AP the FBI asked him to confirm that the address appeared in his records, and it did. Ramuglia said his logs showed the hacker visiting Yahoo’s mail service, resetting Palin’s password and announcing results of the break-in on a website where the hacking was first disclosed. "I think he just didn’t realize the severity of what he was doing until afterwards," Ramuglia said. After the break-in, a person claiming responsibility published a detailed chronology of the hacking on the same website. That person identified his email address as one that has been linked publicly to David Kernell. After the break-in, a person claiming responsibility published a detailed chronology of the hacking on the website where the break-in was first revealed. That person identified his email address as one that has been linked publicly to David Kernell. Mike Kernell, 56, is known for his liberal stance on state issues in the legislature, and he has a straight-laced reputation among his colleagues. State Representative John Deberry, another Democrat, described Kernell as the "quintessential Boy Scout" who always follows the rules. The hacker described guessing correctly that Alaska’s governor had met her husband in high school, and knew Palin’s date of birth and home postal code. Using those details, the hacker tricked Yahoo’s service into assigning a new password, "popcorn," for Palin’s email account. What started as a prank was cut short because of panic over the possibility the FBI might investigate, the hacker wrote. Top of Page |
|
|
September 2, 2010, 8:22 am |