Gov. Palin's Alleged Hacker Indicted; Password Was 'Popcorn'

A 20-year-old student at the University of Tennessee has been indicted for breaking into one of the email accounts of Gov. Sarah Palin and then posting screenshots of personal information obtained there to a public Web-site.

David Kernell, the son of a Democratic state lawmaker, was led into a Knoxville federal court wearing handcuffs and shackles on his ankles today and was released without posting bond, according to the Associated Press.

According to the indictment, Kernell broke into the account, gov.palin@yahoo.com, by using Yahoo's password recovery tool. After researching and correctly answering a series of personal questions from Yahoo, Kernell was allowed to reset the password. He chose 'popcorn,' according to the indictment.

The personal information he discovered there included the email addresses of family members, pictures of family members and Gov. Palin's address book for her Yahoo email account. It was posted on www.4CHAN.org.

Learning of an investigation, Kernell "removed, altered, concealed and covered up files on his laptop computer," the indictment says.

Trial is set for Dec. 16. He faces a maximum of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.

By Peter Whoriskey | October 8, 2008; 3:05 PM ET | Category: Peter Whoriskey

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