Hackers break into Sarah Palin’s inbox!

[sabra]

http://blogs.artvoice.com/techvoice/2008/09/17/hackers-break-into-sarah-palins-inbox/

This is breaking news, so stay tuned for details as more are available… but it appears the infamous group of cyber-mischief makers “anonymous” are up to their old tricks, and this time they had Governor Palin in their sights. While this has not yet been completely confirmed, there were

Early this morning somebody was able to compromise “[e-mail],” by apparently discovering the password to the account. The password was posted to a public forum - and a field day ensued. Within a time, another “anonymous” had changed the password on the account to effectively lock everybody out, and later this morning the account had disappeared all together.

Just last week, the Washington Post published an article about Sarah Palin’s use of this very same Yahoo e-mail account. Palin’s use of a public e-mail service rather than the secure state e-mail system raised some eyebrows. She was potentially communicating about sensitive matters off the record on a third party service. Arguing that she should be using the secure and encrypted state e-mail system, an activist in her state had called for the release of her e-mails.

Well, it looks like lawyers won’t be necessary, as “anonymous” might have done the job for them.'

[Hutzpa]

1. Wow

:wow:

I think I've lost my cock screw.

[Blaze Diem]

4. Is this for real??? Not another Palin head on a bikini body?

unbelievable.
Alaskans should be asking for their money & vote back.
What a dumb dork she is.

[Hutzpa]

19. Haven't you heard??

Alaska is the new South....

:evilgrin:

[Kalyke]

32. You mean the new mid-West.

The South is more purple than the corn belt states.

I really get tired of the South bearing the brunt of the hatred in public forums when there are far more liberals here than in tht swath from Texas up to the Dakotas.

[pizoxuat]

48. It appears to be real.

Wiki leaks is now carrying the documents that were saved before the white knighting. http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin_Yahoo_inbox_2008

The full timeline of events, with evidence that supports the story, is here: http://pastebin.com/f652c44fb

"THE INCIDENT

WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR:

- Very recently an anonymous poster on /b/ claimed to have hacked Sarah Palin's Yahoo e-mail account.

- Sarah Palin used the e-mail address [e-mail] for public communication. Several media outlets have confirmed this fact prior to this "incident".

SOURCE: http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/10/palin-email-privilege/
SOURCE: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/09/15-7

- The e-mail address that the poster hacked was [e-mail]. This second e-mail address, previously unknown publicly, was used for private communcations.

- Yahoo e-mail addresses, unlike .gov e-mail addresses, are not subject to archiving and oversight. This fact has led to controversy from several sources, including fellow Republicans, asking her to release e-mails from her Yahoo account.

- The anonymous poster apparently panicked, and released the password onto /b/.

- Several other posters on /b/ took screenshots of the Inbox and various e-mails.

- Some of the screenshots reference several people in Alaska state government. One of these people is Sean Parnell, Lieutenant Governor of Alaska. Parnell mentions KFQD Radio's Dan Fagan, to whom he gave an interview about Palin's ACES initiative. Lt. Gov. Parnell's e-mail address is verified via an Alaska Republican Central Committee contact listing.

SOURCE: http://gov.state.ak.us/aces/
SOURCE: http://www.alaskarepublicans.com/centralcommittee.aspx

- One of the screenshots references the Yahoo account fek9wnr, Todd Palin, Sarah's husband who is at the heart of the controversy over her use of Yahoo e-mail for public dealings. The fek9wnr account was verified as being Todd Palin via a public posting to an automotive enthusiast BBS from August 2006.

SOURCE: http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/centurionconversions/message/2309

- Several photographs of her family were allegedly downloaded from the e-mail account.

- A scan of profiles.yahoo.com put [e-mail]'s profile update date at 04/05/2008, long before any VP nod was apparent. If this were a fake, the perpetrator would've had to travel into the past and create an account or be very good at guessing who the VP candidate would be 5+ months later, not to mention faking an overwhelming amount of e-mails, photographs, verified private cellphone numbers, and other information.

- A good samaritan in the /b/ thread reset the password account with the intention of handing it over to Palin, a process known on /b/ as "white knighting". This locked everyone else out of the account. The "white knight" posted a screenshot to /b/ of his pending message to one of Palin's contacts about how to recover the account, but made the critical mistake of not blanking out the new password he set.

- Several other people in the /b/ thread then apparently logged in using this new password, and they all attempted to reset the password at once, causing a security trap at Yahoo to automatically put a 24-hour lockout on the account.


THE AFTERMATH:

- Sarah Palin was likely notified of the breach by morning, as she had then deleted both the [e-mail] address (the one subject to the disclosure controversy in the media) as well as the [e-mail] address (the one that was hacked).

- The outright deletion of the accounts can be verified by attempting to pull up the public profile on both addresses, which both existed during the incident.

SOURCE: http://profiles.yahoo.com/gov.palin
SOURCE: http://profiles.yahoo.com/gov.sarah

- Both accounts were deleted simultaneously, thus linking the publicly-known e-mail address "gov.sarah" and the private e-mail address "gov.palin".

- This outright deletion may have the potential to be viewed as destruction of evidence, considering that the e-mails in the now-deleted accounts are the subject of several legal controversies.

SOURCE: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/03/AR2008090303210_pf.html

- Several ZIP, RAR, and 7Z compilations of the downloaded screenshots, contacts, and photos were made available by anonymous individuals.

- 4chan is actively (some say over-actively) banning and deleting any posts of the screenshots of Palin's account, contacts, or family photos.

- An anonymous poster to 420chan, using information from the e-mail account's contact list, attempted to call Bristol Palin's cellphone number using the AT&T phone relay service. Several others allegedly called the cellphone number itself and got Bristol's voicemail. These posts were quickly deleted by 420chan moderators.

- A poster on /b/ did a lookup on the cellphone number which returned this information:

Type: Cell Phone
Provider: Dobson Cellular Systems
Location: Palmer, AK

- An anonymous individual has uploaded some of the screenshots to a photobucket account.

SOURCE: http://s405.photobucket.com/albums/pp134/anoncrack/

- A poster in /r9k/ e-mailed the compilations to ABC News producer Eamon McNiff who he/she claims is a personal contact of his/hers.

- Someone submitted a summary to Digg. As of this writing it has only 12 diggs.

SOURCE: http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/The_Incident_Did_4Chan_Anon_Hack_Palin_s_Yahoo_Email

- As of right now the media related to the incident sits mostly confined to 4chan and rapidshare, and thus either deleted, censored or under the radar."

[AzNick]

84. Even more unbelievable that she used Yahoo...

I mean, someone could not put her on an Exchange server with secured Web access? SSL key and all? Or anything just as serious as Exchange?

That a State governor uses Yahoo for business email completely infuriates me.

They probably ran a dictionary attack on her email, and maybe even just tried her kids first name.

My wife's email password is my first name, but she's not a State governor.

[LunaSea]

50. Gawker link

http://gawker.com/5051193/sarah-palins-personal-email-account-hacked

[1corona4u]

2. I wanna know what the one about Trigg said, LOL....

[Blaze Diem]

9. lol..maybe lilTrigg is not her son's nor hers, but Tawd's by an

extramarital affair???
Gotta find that e-mail..

[Ian David]

3. Is this for real? n/t

[cdb]

5. I think it's fake

There are no emails from Nigeria, nothing about cheap rolez watches, c h e a p v!2gra... etc...

[CatBO]

8. I think it's real.... click on the link

The blog links to additional captures. There is a mobile phone photo of Trig shown, as well as a contact list. The fact that it shows the mobile photo that seems to be in the "IT'S TRIG!!!!" email makes it seem like they really did get in.

[vaberella]

11. She has a spam section. That stuff goes straight to spam unless you have

supposedly the extreme security. When I just spam guard those things went ONLY to spam. And she has 9 things in the spam.

However, I agree, I don't think it's true.

[slampoet]

70. It does look a little fakey but we'll see. Article after the link has a person confirming

that she sent one of the emails.

[LunaSea]

6. Real or not this will be entertaining

[justiceischeap]

7. If this is for real, I'd be curious to see what else they found in there.

The emails seem to be pretty innocuous. I mean, it's no big secret that Fundies want to stack the legislature with like-minded folks.

[yourguide]

10. WTF the post is GONE!

[vaberella]

12. At least the OP saved the pic. n/t

[Arkansas Granny]

16. I was going to say the same thing, but I clicked again and it's back!

[SurfingAtWork]

13. Well, that blog post has been scrubbed.. Hope someone got a screen shot.

[LunaSea]

14. Server swamped or docs pulled?

I'm seeing zero content on the link.
Is it just me?

[nc4bo]

17. I just got the email list then poof. nt

[nc4bo]

15. aww shucks. Yahoo owners, be sure to use really really good passwords bwahahaha!!!

Now for the good stuff; I'm positive that these people got copies of every email in that inbox (hackers are pretty thorough critters) - sooooooooo I wonder if and when those get leaked out.

[1corona4u]

18. Looks like they pulled the pix?

Damn, I should have saved them..

Ok they are still on the site, but I don't see them here....I saved them though...just in case.

[nc4bo]

20. got 'em all. A few others may have got them too ;) nt

[symbolman]

21. They've got a list of her contacts too

if you've got half a mind to give Todd SHADOW GOVENOR Palin a Piece of your mind, which means he'd have SOME Brains then :)

His email address is right there on the page!

Wonder if those guys with the curly spaghettie noodles behind their ears that talk into their sleeve would come and pay you a friendly visit if you were to write to any of these assholes..

Probably..

But this is BEAUTIFUL! She was using a personal UNEncrypted mailbox to avoid getting caught, a ROVE Trick, but NOW she's been Breached..

So NOW, we can say that this woman's need to NOT get caught has made her a National Security RISK. She's UNSAFE, too irresponsible to BE in the WHite House!

Run with THAT Obama!

[LunaSea]

22. I snagged em

[symbolman]

25. Where's the Contact list?

That's the FIRST ONE I saved.. :)

Bet they're all scrambling now, having to make up NEW Mail addys.. poor little brains on overdrive, and with Sarah getting all dressed up to go to that building with all the FLAGS on it (The UN) and hoping to see one day, the ALASKA NATIONAL FLAG flapping there..

Goddamned Seceesionist..

[LunaSea]

27. contact list

[symbolman]

34. Beautiful

You do good work :)

Now to write to Todd and say, "Hi Todd, you might not know me, but you sort of do, I'm the Brother and Brother-In-Law of Lynette and Dexter Clark, the Chairpersons of the Alaskan Independence Party, and I'd like to ask you a few questions, clear all this up for the media.."

and it's all TRUE :)

[sfwriter]

41. She only has 19 contacts!?!

Is this BS, because if not, who would vote for two leaders that between them only have 19 email contacts?

In this day and age, my cat is better connected through email than Palin.

[progressoid]

46. Yeah,

I'm just a schmuck from Iowa and I have over a hundred in one account alone.

But to be fair, her running mate doesn't even use email so... :shrug:

[joe_sixpack]

86. Wow!

Not sure if you should have posted that.

[wvbygod]

44. Oh yes, got to have the "contact list"

Can't have invasion of privacy without the "contact list" can we?
Privacy is only for the poor little brains that know how to break in to the system.
If this whole email crack is true the "dudes" that cracked it are likely toast.

Goddamned hypocrites indeed..

[symbolman]

64. Yeah, all for a Transparent govt are we?

They can RECORD and LISTEN IN ON every one of MY Phone calls, but gosh, I get ONE of their emails and I'm a fucking hypocrite..

Check those meds, must be past the date, not working so well.. :)

[wvbygod]

71. But you're not the "anonymous" cracker

I need meds. I don't have the ones I need.

[symbolman]

73. Ooops Sorry

I took what you said all wrong, and I apologise.. I need my meds I guess. :)

[Clear Blue Sky]

23. At least she knows how to use email, unlike her running mate.

[Guava Jelly]

24. link works for me

http://blogs.artvoice.com/techvoice/2008/09/17/hackers-break-into-sarah-palins-inbox/

[Tarc]

26. ATTN; the anon group's photobucket account

http://s405.photobucket.com/albums/pp134/anoncrack/

Spread this around and I highly suggest a right click-save as on every image there so that this doesn't get disappeared into the ether.

[LunaSea]

There were more lulz, this was all I got.

[nc4bo]

29. Am I reading the code right? No evidence here, if it was, it'd be posted even at the hackers risk?nt

[pizoxuat]

54. The evidence is in the reaction

Both the [e-mail] account (the one that was hacked) and the [e-mail] (which is verified to belong to Palin by multiple news sources and her own campaign) were deleted at the same time this morning. If the hack was a fake, or the [e-mail] account was a fake there would be absolutely no reason to nuke the real account.

[nc4bo]

56. ohhhhh gotcha. Running a little slow today. nt

[Bill219]

30. Page not found …but while you're at Photobucket, why not try:

[tekisui]

78. It's gone.

At least for that link.

[d_b]

28. L-U-L-Z*

*if true

[texasleo]

57. lulz

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

31. DICKS EVERYWHERE!

[hisownpetard]

33. Forget about Sarah's email account: they should've peeked in on Todd's!

He was copied on just about everything she wrote, wasn't he?
Except maybe the emails she wrote to his ex-partner.

[seabeyond]

55. isnt that the truth. n/t

[FreeState]

35. If true I bet Rove said to leak it to show no government emails there... n/t

[LunaSea]

36. another

[eshfemme]

37. OMFG, the same Anonymous that's fighting Scientology?

That's some crazy shit. And it's a weird coincidence because they're like my favorite protest group to follow the news on.

Soooo weird.


And yeah, I guess it kinda fits Anonymous' whole sticking it to the man but I kinda thought that they were more anarchists/libertarians. Oh well, they also are very pro-LOLs and anti-Fox News (although they love Fox News for a local affiliate's ominous "Anonymous blows up yellow vans" news report).

[Overseas]

38. K&R -- fascinating stuff.

Modern Republicans are all about dirty tactics and The End Justifying the Means, so let's see how they feel about some sneaking being used back at them.

[ToddRodd]

39. CHECKMATE!!!

They did a much better job than I would have!

[wvbygod]

40. People against email privacy and for cracking email accounts

And posting personal email and on and on.

Even if this is real, regardless of party affiliation it's disgusting.

[Yuugal]

42. Agreed

Pretty low

[Radical Activist]

43. Not when private email is being used to subvert public disclosure laws.

If she's using this to get around the freedom of information act, as the Bush admin has done, then I have no sympathy for her.

[Born_A_Truman]

45. Can Anonymous ignore subpoenas too?

[ColbertWatcher]

68. Who would they subpoena? Word is that it might not even be an American who hacked.

Someone said that it might have been one of those pesky Scandinavian pirates!

[LooseWilly]

83. Look at some of those emails.

One's from the Lt. Governor. Another from some Jeebus freak she apparently appointed to an advisory board that has something to do with Alcohol abuse ("Fuck that, that whiskey had it coming...").

A lot of them sure seem to be government communications. Hence, yes... it looks like part of the point is to get around public disclosure laws...

So much for her moral highground regarding her privacy...

[NYC Liberal]

59. Not when she's using her personal email to conduct state business

like she's supposed to, it's not!

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

60. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And how dare those awful people pry into Nixon's private Watergate tapes!

:eyes:

[Zhade]

74. She used it to (illegally?) circumvent government transparency rules.

That makes it fair game.

Someone tried to assassinate Hitler - would you have whined about that, too?

[chatnoir]

47. She was using a yahoo account instead of a state encrypted system?

[e-mail] - is she seriously that stupid and unprofessional?

[LunaSea]

49. And this is why you don't do such things.

Seriously stupid.
I'm starting the think the republican koolaid manufacturing was outsourced to China since the last election.
If it's tainted with a very high lead content....that would explain a few things.....

[chatnoir]

58. According to the Gawker article above, she had both?

But appears she was attempting to circumvent laws requiring retention of gov records, hence the yahoo account.

[pizoxuat]

51. I sent an email to Rachel Maddow - public servants should not be allowed to use these email services

I think that we can make a serious case for the nation that this proves that public servants using non-government encrypted email addresses for government business is unsafe for the nation and should be stopped immediately.

[Kalyke]

52. I work for an internet security company and I see about

50 violations just on this page.

Our would-be second-in-command is using freakin' YAHOO email to conduct state business? Is using freakin' YAHOO to email personal info to anyone about anything?? Criminey!!

Heck, I won't even email a love note to my husband without two-level authentication unless I plan on the whole world accessing it at some point.

And, the security issues don't even cover the sheer arrogance of believing one can get around FOIA laws by using private email accounts. There are lawsuits all over the country to iron out that little matter and, thus far, judges have been ruling that public officials can't expect the same level of privacy as private citizens.

STUPID. STUPID. STUPID!

[wvbygod]

66. WHat does internet security say about people that crack personal email accounts?

Seems like anonymous could become well known if that is the case.

[ronnykmarshall]

53. At first I didn't see the "in" and just saw "box".

Oh dear.

[terrya]

80. EWWWWWWWWW.

There goes dinner.

:puke:

[Cleita]

61. Ouch! I just watched on DVD last evening "The X Files" episode that

showed how the Lone Gunmen were formed and their relationship to Fox Mulder. Sounds like this anonymous group are similar to the Lone Gunmen.

[Borgnine]

77. Hah, and in the X-Files universe...

...The Lone Gunmen successfully stopped 9/11, which was definitely an inside job.

[Cleita]

82. Isn't that why the Lone Gunmen spin off was canceled?

Now correct me if my memory is off on this but wasn't the 9-11 episode filmed and aired before 9-11 actually happened and some studio heads got ever so nervous and canceled the series because of it. Also, rewatching the X-Files, I am much more aware now of the political scenarios that Chris Carter was making that are so much like what is happening today. It's almost like he new what the future would bring.

[Lilith Velkor]

88. That was the very first episode.

It was cancelled due to bad ratings the summer before 9/11.

I still remember how much weirder it made that day seem.

[Borgnine]

90. The episode aired 6 months prior to 9/11.

And the show was officially canceled in June or July, so it wasn't the reason behind it. Still, I'm in total agreement with you. The government that was portrayed in The X-Files revealed itself in reality right as the show left the air.

[mamalone]

62. OK, can somebody translate for me here...

Is there anything damaging to Palin in here? Or is it just the idea that she was using such an insecure vehicle as Yahoo?

[ColbertWatcher]

63. The most damaging thing so far is that she used a personal email account for public business.

What she did was illegal.

If anything else is discovered in the emails, nothing has been announced (yet), but nothing else needs to be.

She's already broken the law by using the Yahoo account to do government business.

[mamalone]

65. Thanks so much!

Sometimes the actual significance of these events eludes me... maybe I need a bit more caffeine;)

[ColbertWatcher]

67. You don't need an excuse for more caffeine! n/t

[wvbygod]

72. What was the public business?

The notes I saw looked rather personal in nature.

Nobody is stupid enough to use unsecure email for business.

[Zhade]

75. You're talking about someone so stupid she thought the Founders recited the pledge of allegience...

...despite it being written over a century after the formation of the country.

[slampoet]

69. YAHHHOOOOOOO!!!!!!

SERIOUSLY!?


If you are using Yahoo for state business you deserve impeachment for dereliction of duty and neglect of procedure.



Anyone in the private sector would be told to Clean Out Their Desk.

[1Hippiechick]

81. She only used YAHOO because YEE-HAW was experiencing technical difficulties. n/t

[progressoid]

76. CNN reporting it now!

[Bramlet Abercrombie]

79. People still use the Yahoo! email service?

That's probably the most shocking thing about this.

[Liberal In Texas]

85. Guessed her password? I suppose it was something like Todd or

Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper, Trig...

And they think this woman has the smarts to be the President of the United States!?

:rofl:

[City of Mills]

87. WARNING!!! People need to change their passwords frequently !!!

Some warning/instruction here -

If you use mail services like Yahoo! email. Way too easy to hack w/social engineering. If I remember right, resetting a password for those systems usually requires the user's DOB, their ZIP code, and then a 'secret' question. You can find most of that information in people's friggin MySpace page. For example, a lot of people use their pet's name as their secret question/answer - A lot of people will blog about their pets. Once you're in their account with that info, a new password is generated. Now, you gotta be quick - search the inbox for other account registrations. Also, go to Photobucket, classmates.com, walmart.com etc. and use their "Forgot Password" feature with the person's email address (which you now have access to). Chances are, they will have an account somewhere. There's a good chance one of those places will not have a password reset feature - instead, they will mail the user password in plain text! Most people use the same password for their various online accounts (few people use different passwords) so reset the Yahoo account password using the same password from one of those 'forgot password' results. And just like that, you have access to an email account without the user knowing. Ifyou can't access the account after a day or two or whatever, chances are the real user was locked out and did reset the password. If not, you guessed right and the user will never know you have access to their account.

Now that you know how it works, PROTECT YOURSELF! Change your password at least every six months. If someone's cracked your account you may not know it! If you change your password every six months then a potential hacker has access to your account up to six months. Simple. For the account registration, use false information. Use a ZIP code you'll remember but not one you lived in. Use a fake birthday, on all my internet-based email accounts I use 1/1/1969 (not even close to my real birthday).

And for the LOVE OF GOD, WATCH WHAT INFORMATION YOU PUT IN YOUR MYSPACE/FACEBOOK/LINKEDIN ACCOUNTS!!!

Thank me later :)

[Skip Intro]

89. This smells like the Dan Rather/Bush AWOL thing to me.

Smells like a setup to me.

Just sayin

we don't need this kinda thing to win anyway...

[MyNameGoesHere]

91. EWWWW gross why would they want to look at her "inbox" hehe

[raebrek]

92. I don't usually speak this way but.

I think that "Anonymous" is so fucked when the secret service catches up to him. I hope it was worth it.

Raebrek!!!