Sarah Palin Hacking Trial Proves Email Accounts Are Easy Targets

University of Tennessee student David C. Kernell is obviously not the sharpest knife in the drawer. In September 2008 the UT economics major decided he was going to have a little fun at the expense of then vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Kernell hacked into the former governor's Yahoo! email account--the one she used to communicate with her family during the 2008 presidential campaign.

Now defendant Kernell is facing four federal felony counts, including identify theft and wire fraud. If found guilty on all four counts, the 22-year-old son of a Democratic state lawmaker could face up to 50 years in prison.

Palin's Yahoo! Security Question Was Easy for Kernell to Guess

According to prosecutors, Kernell was able to hack into Sarah Palin's email account by entering her birth date, zip code, and by answering a Yahoo! security question that Wasilla was where she met her husband, Todd.

After hacking into Palin's account, Kernell tried to cover his tracks by deleting the information he collected, clearing his Internet browser history and defragmenting his harddrive. Unfortunately for Kernell, he did not reformat the computer--which would have wiped the drive clean.

In a strange twist of fate, investigators discovered a virus or "malware" on the defendant's computer that had been logging most of his Internet activity. Not good for Kernell.

Email Service Providers Make it Easy to Hack Into Accounts

Obviously email accounts are not that difficult to break into. If someone as famous as Sarah Palin is vulnerable, you are too. Yahoo! email accounts in particular are very easy to hack if you happen to know or have access to personal information about the owner.

Most email service providers ask users to answer a few security questions in the event a password is lost or forgotten. Guessing the answers to these questions is often simple; David Kernell found the information he needed to access Sarah Palin's email account by performing a few Google searches.

Sarah Palin's email ordeal should be a lesson to us all. Don't assume your information is safe when using any online service. Pick passwords and security questions that will be impossible for a hacker to guess. Delete sensitive emails after you read them and clear out "trash" bins and other cached folders before you exit the program.

While I disagree with the never-ending criticism Sarah Palin receives regarding her level of intelligence, hopefully this email fiasco has taught her that picking a security answer like "Wasilla" was not a smart thing to do.

Sources:
FBI Agent Says Kernell Tried to Destroy Proof of Palin Email Breach, Knoxnews
Sarah Palin Testifies in Email Hacking Trial, Associated Press