You're not going to believe this...UPDATED

by: General Content

Wed Sep 17, 2008 at 14:30:24 PM CDT

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Not cool...whoever did this is in some serious trouble.

John McCain's campaign said Wednesday it has contacted "appropriate authorities" over a report that Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin's personal e-mail had been hacked.

"This is a shocking invasion of the Governor's privacy and a violation of law," campaign manager Rick Davis said in a statement. "The matter has been turned over to the appropriate authorities and we hope that anyone in possession of these emails will destroy them. We will have no further comment."

The statement came hours after a user on the Web site WikiLeaks said he had gained access to Palin's Yahoo e-mail account and gained access.  Screenshots of the e-mail messages and photos of the Alaska governor's family were published on that Web site and later on gossip Web site gawker.com.

FBI Spokesman Eric Gonzalez in Anchorage, Alaska confirms to CNN an investigation is underway.

"We are aware of the allegations and we are coordinating with Secret Service as far as the allegation that someone has hacked into Governor Palin's personal e-mail account," he said. "We are going to be working a joint investigation with Secret Service on this."

My instincts tell me that this is the last we will hear about "hackers" and "anonymous" as a force to be reckoned with. I sat down tonight and thought of the implications--the invasion of privacy--and I said to myself, they hacked into the personal E-mail of a governor and the Republican nominee for Vice-President of the United States--how stupid could they be?

In case you're wondering, no. There is nothing these people can do to cover their tracks.

Yes, they ARE going to catch them.

We can rail against the Bush Administration all we want, but, let me just point out, the people who can find these people are bureaucrats and worker bees, and they have some pretty powerful shit at their disposal. More than you'll ever know.

Somewhere, someone might as well just turn their ass in.

The internet griefers known as Anonymous took credit for the intrusion, and screenshots of e-mail messages and photos belonging to the Alaska governor have been published by WikiLeaks. Threat Level has confirmed the authenticity of at least one of the e-mails.

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was tapped by Senator John McCain to be his vice-presidential running mate.

The cache of stolen data contains five screenshots from Palin's account, including the text of an e-mail exchange with Alaskan Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell about his campaign for Congress.

Another screenshot shows Palin's inbox and a third shows the text of an e-mail from Amy McCorkell, whom Palin appointed to the Governor's Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse in 2007.

The e-mail, a message of support to Palin, tells her not to let negative press get to her and asks Palin to pray for McCorkell, who writes that "I need strength to 1. keep employment, 2. not have to choose."

Here are some of the images that were lifted from the E-mail account:

While we certainly do not condone such a thing, there is this problem:

Todd Palin was frequently copied on e-mails relating to Alaska State Troopers and the union representing public safety employees, according to McLeod, who received four boxes of redacted e-mails in response to her request. At the time, both Sarah and Todd Palin were complaining to the state public safety commissioner about a disciplinary matter involving Sarah Palin's ex-brother-in-law, a state trooper.

Palin also routinely does government business from a Yahoo address, gov.sarah@yahoo.com, rather than her secure official state e-mail address, according to documents already made public.

"Whoops!" Palin aide Frank Bailey wrote, after addressing an e-mail to the governor's official state address. "Frank, This is not the Governor's personal account," a secretary reminded him.

So much for politicians--the White House included--trying to get around the use of official E-mails.

We need a law that will REQUIRE all public officials conduct official business under a registered, archived, and protected E-mail account. Yes, there are "laws" on the books for retention of government records--those laws are being skirted left and right. We need some laws with some "bite" to them to replace the rules that are already there. And we need to ensure that people are not allowed to "hack" into personal accounts.