KNOXVLLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- Is a Tennessean the hacker who broke into and read Vice Presidental candidate Governor Sarah Palin's private e-mail?
There are claims on the internet that the culprit is the son of a Tennessee state lawmaker and a student on at UT-Knoxville.
The answers are few, but the hacking points out just how vulnerable your own e-mail may be.
The UT student in question, David Kernell, hasn't returned cell phone calls.
The FBI admits it’s investigating, but the agency won’t say whom.
Whomever did it, likely didn't have to try very hard.
Rep. Mike Kernell says, “The person they're talking about is my son,"
State Representative Mike Kernell's 20-year-old son David calls himself an Obamacrat -- at least on what WAS his Facebook page.
Mike Kernell says, "He loves chess, very adept at chess"
But is he, as dozens of Web sites claim, the hacker who's admitted breaking into Gov. Palin's private-email account?
Mike Kernell says, “I hate to say anything about him -- there's got to be a line there. Because I'm the father, he's my son,"
Corporate computer systems administrator Judson Hall says, “It's bragging rights, it's just bragging rights plain and simple. There's no benefit to it.”
Hall won't call whoever did it a hacker given that the crack was so easy.
Hall says, “Yahoo is an entry level email system that's made for ease of use-which also makes it easy to recover a lost password.”
And change it by keying in the right personal information: birthday, hometown.
Wednesday, a blogger claiming to be the alleged hacker wrote that he, or she, had read all of Governor Palins e-mails, but found nothing incriminating that would, as hoped, derail her campaign.
But what started as a prank, was becoming serious business, especially if the FBI gets involved.
It was serious enough that the claim-to-be-hacker blogged that he or she panicked, and after posting Palin's info the hacker deleted everything, got off the Web, sat there “in a comatose state.”
As of Thursday night, Rep. Mike Kernell says, “I have not been contacted. He has not been contacted."
UT officials say they can't confirm or deny whether the FBI has asked for any information regarding David Kernell.
The university does have rules regarding it's computers and servers.
They ban misrepresenting your identity, or getting into someone else’s files or email.
You risk losing privileges, even expulsion.
Beyond that, e-mail hacking is now a federal crime, and given Governor Palin's high profile, Hall says, “They're probably gonna go after them.”
Rep. Kernell says, "We're just gonna see how this plays out."
Under federal law, e-mail hackers could face a fine and/or prison time ranging from six months to five years, depending on whether they simply snooped or intended to steal vital info or do harm.
The bigger-lesson for all of us: Don't use extremely user friendly e-mail accounts for private info, or, if you do, pick unusual passwords and unusual answers to password hints to make hacking tougher.
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