Alleged Palin email hacker indicted
Published: 09 Oct 2008 09:34 BST
A 20-year-old college student suspected of hacking into one of Alaska governor Sarah Palin's email accounts was indicted on Tuesday, a US district court has announced.
David Kernell, a University of Tennessee student and son of Democratic Tennessee state representative Mike Kernell, turned himself into federal authorities and will be arraigned on Wednesday before Judge C Clifford Shirley in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.
The indictment, unsealed on Wednesday, charges that on 16 September Kernell intentionally accessed the vice presidential candidate's Yahoo email account without authorisation. According to the charges, Kernell is the individual responsible for posting screenshots of the account's content to a public website. He allegedly gained access to Palin's account by answering a set of security questions and changing the password. He then allegedly posted the new password online, enabling others to access the account.
Kernell faces a maximum of five years in prison if convicted, along with a $250,000 (£145,000) fine and a three-year term of supervised release. The case is being investigated by the FBI's Anchorage and Knoxville field offices. No trial date is scheduled yet.
Credit: Alleged Palin hacker indicted from CNET News.com
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