Michelle Malkin » The story behind the Palin e-mail hacking

The story behind the Palin e-mail hacking

By Michelle Malkin • September 17, 2008 07:31 PM

I mentioned an infamous group of hackers whose Internet bulletin board was the gathering place for those who bragged about and publicized the Sarah Palin private e-mail hacking.

A tech-savvy reader who monitors the hackers’ site e-mailed me a detailed explanation of how it went down, who was responsible, and how someone with a conscience warned a friend of the Palin family of the crime (language warning):

I missed the original incident, but monitored the discussion and repostings afterward to see what I could learn about what had happened and who was responsible.

There are several misconceptions and errors in most accounts of this story, including your post. Most significantly, the perpetrator(s) were not members of an infamous group of hackers. I don’t blame you for misunderstanding this, because in all the media coverage regarding the war with Scientology the media has completely failed to explain what Anonymous is.

Anonymous is not exactly a group. It is people using the umbrella of a web discussion board for cover to be as offensive, funny, strange, or whatever as they want.

Here’s the short version: there is a site called 4chan.org. It is an image posting site based on a popular Japanese site. The site contains multiple boards, each of which is dedicated to a particular subject. The most notorious of these boards is called /b/. /b/ is the board dedicated to random images. /b/tards, as its denizens are called, are interested only in their own amusement. Their sense of humor runs the gamut from sick to cruel to merely strange. Lolcats, as made famous by http://www.icanhascheezburger.com, originated on /b/. A lot of memes start there. There is a lot of racist humor — pictures of excited and happy black people in proximity to fried chicken abound. There is a lot of pornography. Sometimes it’s child pornography, although posting that is moderator grounds for banning — no, it’s not a pedophile ring; /b/tards post it because they think doing so is funny.

4chan does not log participants. Most people don’t use or have usernames, and post instead as “Anonymous.” And every so often, a number of /b/’s anonymous denizens decide to make somebody’s life hell. Sometimes it’s a random person who offends /b/’s sense of propriety. Sometimes it’s a forum dedicated to a serious topic. Sometimes it’s Scientology. And Tuesday, it was Sarah Palin. Or it would have been.

Sarah Palin’s email account was hacked by one person. Not a group.

This person read her emails, then posted the username and password on /b/. This happened at about 4 in the morning on Tuesday. The idea was that the sea of Anonymous /b/tards would download the emails, upload porn, and cause all manner of mischief. Anonymous is not a group of hackers. Anonymous is more like gremlins. They are hyperactive adolescents in search of amusement and joy, which they often get by upsetting people and making messes. That’s what was happening here. Anonymous did not hack the account. A hacker tried to throw Sarah Palin to Anonymous. Not all of Anonymous was having it. One person threw a crowbar in the works. Other /b/tards were displeased to miss a chance at the lulz. The moderators stepped in. The thread was deleted.

Later, other individuals created threads reposting screencaps of emails and the inbox, and put together a collection of these files. All mentions of these were purged by the moderators. So then some bright /b/tards decided to email what little stuff they had to the media.

That’s pretty much it.

This afternoon, in a thread that was later deleted, an individual claiming to be the original poster gave his account of what happened. I’ve attached screencaps. Here’s the text. The original poster used the name “rubico.” The linked email address for the poster was rubico10@yahoo.com.

This is what rubico said:

rubico 09/17/08(Wed)12:57:22 No.85782652

Hello, /b/ as many of you might already know, last night sarah palin’s yahoo was “hacked” and caps were posted on /b/, i am the lurker who did it, and i would like to tell the story.

In the past couple days news had come to light about palin using a yahoo mail account, it was in news stories and such, a thread was started full of newfags trying to do something that would not get this off the ground, for the next 2 hours the acct was locked from password recovery presumably from all this bullshit spamming.

after the password recovery was reenabled, it took seriously 45 mins on wikipedia and google to find the info, Birthday? 15 seconds on wikipedia, zip code? well she had always been from wasilla, and it only has 2 zip codes (thanks online postal service!)

the second was somewhat harder, the question was “where did you meet your spouse?” did some research, and apparently she had eloped with mister palin after college, if youll look on some of the screenshits that I took and other fellow anon have so graciously put on photobucket you will see the google search for “palin eloped” or some such in one of the tabs.

I found out later though more research that they met at high school, so I did variations of that, high, high school, eventually hit on “Wasilla high” I promptly changed the password to popcorn and took a cold shower…

>> rubico 09/17/08(Wed)12:58:04 No.85782727

this is all verifiable if some anal /b/tard wants to think Im a troll, and there isn’t any hard proof to the contrary, but anyone who had followed the thread from the beginning to the 404 will know I probably am not, the picture I posted this topic with is the same one as the original thread.

I read though the emails… ALL OF THEM… before I posted, and what I concluded was anticlimactic, there was nothing there, nothing incriminating, nothing that would derail her campaign as I had hoped, all I saw was personal stuff, some clerical stuff from when she was governor…. And pictures of her family

I then started a topic on /b/, peeps asked for pics or gtfo and I obliged, then it started to get big

Earlier it was just some prank to me, I really wanted to get something incriminating which I was sure there would be, just like all of you anon out there that you think there was some missed opportunity of glory, well there WAS NOTHING, I read everything, every little blackberry confirmation… all the pictures, and there was nothing, and it finally set in, THIS internet was serious business, yes I was behind a proxy, only one, if this shit ever got to the FBI I was fucked, I panicked, i still wanted the stuff out there but I didn’t know how to rapidshit all that stuff, so I posted the pass on /b/, and then promptly deleted everything, and unplugged my internet and just sat there in a comatose state

Then the white knight fucker came along, and did it in for everyone, I trusted /b/ with that email password, I had gotten done what I could do well, then passed the torch , all to be let down by the douchebaggery, good job /b/, this is why we cant have nice things

The “white knight fucker” was the /b/tard who thought that going through Sarah Palin’s email wasn’t cool. He logged in, changed the password, and sent an email to a friend of Palin’s warning her and letting her know the new password. Unfortunately, he then posted a screenshot of this email to let the other /b/tards know their fun was over. He failed to blank the password, and they all tried to log in and change the password — which tripped the automated Yahoo! freeze. Since then, the account has been deleted. “Rapidshit” refers to rapidshare.com — i.e., rubico wanted to download the emails, put them into one file, and put that file up on rapidshare for /b/tards and the world at large to download. But he panicked, or didn’t know how to download the emails, and so pawned that task off on Anonymous, which he didn’t realize wasn’t monolithic and in his favor.

As Paul Harvey would say, “And now you know…. the rest of the story.”

Posted in: Sarah Palin

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#1

On September 17th, 2008 at 7:41 pm, ajmontana said:

crapweasel. get him now.
#2

On September 17th, 2008 at 7:42 pm, RogerCfromSD said:

I like the term “douchebaggery.” It’s right up there with “moonbattery,” and “buggery.”

All of which are perfect when discussing the antics of a morally-challenged liberal.
#3

On September 17th, 2008 at 7:42 pm, Regulus said:

As others have already pointed out on related threads today, this is about the most compelling testimony for “strong” passwords.

Birthdays, zip codes, pet’s names — and let’s not forget the ever-popular “password” — forget about it. There are obviously a lot of strange people out there with way, way too much time on their hands who have nothing better to do than dig up basic information on people, and then use it to get personal.
#4

On September 17th, 2008 at 7:43 pm, guitarplayer said:

Find him, charge him, jail him.
#5

On September 17th, 2008 at 7:43 pm, ptg said:

These /b/tards get to vote if they are of age. Ain’t Democracy grand?
#6

On September 17th, 2008 at 7:45 pm, amerpun said:

For the Hacker: The FBI & USSS are investigating and he should be prosecuted to the furthest extent of the law.

The “white knight fucker” was the /b/tard who thought that going through Sarah Palin’s email wasn’t cool. He logged in, changed the password, and sent an email to a friend of Palin’s warning her and letting her know the new password.

Someone with a conscious. Very good to know.
#7

On September 17th, 2008 at 7:46 pm, unseen said:

if the above story is true. That is good. He found Nothing. Nothing. Palin is clean even in private. I’m sure the truthers will start saying false flag operation or something. But if that is the truth hopefully we will hear the end of it. The sad part was that Bristols cell phone was released. I hope and pray for her because the nutroots are most likely calling her every name in the book.
#8

On September 17th, 2008 at 7:46 pm, St. Louis Blue said:

On September 17th, 2008 at 7:42 pm, Regulus said:

As others have already pointed out on related threads today, this is about the most compelling testimony for “strong” passwords.

Hey, lgm. I hacked your kids.aol.com account. lgm is a weak password. Change it.
#9

On September 17th, 2008 at 7:48 pm, unseen said:

story made it to drudge headlines. top of page. You would think during the biggest market crash in the last 30 years this won’t be a big deal
#10

On September 17th, 2008 at 7:48 pm, Defector01 said:

good lead for the FBI/Secret Service. This hacker should be ****ing bricks by now, he’s not going to find it funny when the Secret Service shove their foot up his backside.
#11

On September 17th, 2008 at 7:49 pm, amerpun said:

You would think during the biggest market crash in the last 30 years this won’t be a big deal

Someone hacking the email account of the Governor of Alaska and potential Vice President is always big news.
#12

On September 17th, 2008 at 7:49 pm, John Ansell said:

Nothing there. she is perfect.
#13

On September 17th, 2008 at 7:50 pm, The Master said:

Some of these people really, really, really need to get a life.
#14

On September 17th, 2008 at 7:52 pm, Rob said:

We need someone to let the games begin… I would pay money to see these bastard scum fight to the death. Maybe the fat C’s on The View could be the opening act.
#15

On September 17th, 2008 at 7:53 pm, beenthere said:

This is grim, fascinating stuff, showing once again the internet is a two-way street and there is no place to hide.

I am very unhappy with the McCain campaign — both with the photo session and now this security breech. It shows shocking naivety, not on Palin’s part, but on McCain’s advisers and handlers. Some, perhaps several people, should be summarily fired for these bone-headed failures and told never to come back.

The Party of Stupid would make grown men weep. The Nice Guy BS has got to stop.
#16

On September 17th, 2008 at 7:58 pm, cwbois said:

From reading this it appears that he hacked it by guessing the security questions yahoo uses to confirm you are you when you want to reset the password. He did not appear to guess or hack the password its self. So no matter how hard the password would have been it wouldnt have prevented this from accuring. Security questions on the other hand should be things you know but are not readly known or available to others. You shouldnt use anything that might be available as a public record.
#17

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:00 pm, cwbois said:

Security questions on the other hand should not be information that can be found as a part of any public record.
#18

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:00 pm, mattm said:

These bastards need to be prosecuted, convicted and given the hardest punishment under the law. That goes for everyone involved.
#19

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:03 pm, meatpieandtatters said:

Fact of the matter is if a geek wants to get into an online account or system there’s not really anything you can do except take it off-line. Yes, there are than many ways to crack the nut.
#20

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:04 pm, Bruce said:

The “problem” with strong passwords is this … some email clients will not allow you to use characters other than underscores, for some damned reason. You are locked into letters and numbers - both of which lead to weak password security.

Some people use a random generator, which is good IF your client allows unusual characters.

The only way to make a password relatively secure from MOST hackers is to use a password using at a minimum of 12 characters - preferably other than underscores and plain letters and numbers. I use ASCII characters in mine, but then my email is self hosted and I can use whatever I want.

I would advise against using any web accessible email client that does not allow you to use ANY characters you want. As this thing shows - they are ridiculously easy to hack. The fact that Sarah used a Yahoo account (arguably garbage) shows that she was not trying to hide anything.
#21

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:04 pm, Goldwater Knight said:

That’s some serious Clive Barker, Cenobite crap straight out the labyrinth.
#22

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:05 pm, unseen said:

She was clean…no shady governmental emails on a private system, no behind the doors b*thcyness. No nothing. This is too good. The McCain campaign should be signing this from the top of the tower. As you can see we have nothing to hide. I wonder what’s in Obama’s emails?
#23

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:09 pm, Floyd R. Turbo said:

Someone needs to remind Senator McCain of the military (at least it was for the Army in ‘70) phrase “it’s time to kick a$$ and take names!”. Take off the gloves and get mean. The /b/tards don’t understand any other language. Screw’m and feed’m beans.
#24

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:12 pm, Send_Me said:

I wonder how many job proposals this person will have waiting for him/her when this is all over.
#25

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:12 pm, purplepeep said:

There is a lot of pornography.

Folks who know have been online since the dawn of time know of the “4Chan” site with which the Gawker is affiliated. It is a notorious pedophile website which tries to pass itself off as a cutting-edge “free-press” progressive (i.e. Dem-liberal) site. It moves around often since webhosts shut down service once they find out about it’s illegal Gawker-Chan kiddy-porn content.

They hide like cockroaches, but the Feds still manage busts on the Gawker’s fave kiddy-porn site. A long-standing internet joke on that fact is summed up in pics of an FBI paddy wagon with the words “4Chan Party Van” on it.

To illustrate, here’s an example I googled, saved and re-uploaded of one such depiction of the “party van”:
(Note: No, it’s not offensive)

http://i35.tinypic.com/2z8ck06.jpg

Nice friends the Gawker has there.
#26

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:13 pm, FamilyMan said:

Public education and lack parenting gives you a sociopath.
Some people just need a good slap
#27

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:16 pm, Mookie said:

How is Gawker affiliated with 4chan?
#28

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:18 pm, purplepeep said:

amerpun said:

“You would think during the biggest market crash in the last 30 years this won’t be a big deal”

Someone hacking the email account of the Governor of Alaska and potential Vice President is always big news.

Indeed, Amerpun,I remember when Watergate was just a bungled garden- variety burglary found on page 35, section D of a few local Wash DC papers.
#29

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:19 pm, shooter said:

8:00 pm, mattm said:
These bastards need to be prosecuted, convicted and given the hardest punishment under the law. That goes for everyone involved.

Many prolly aren’t old enuf to have their names printed in the paper.
#30

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:20 pm, SixDegrees said:

Sounds like cover to me. I’m not buying it.

Funny how Obama’s gone all silent, despite this egregious violation of his demand that families remain off limits.

In any case, it looks like the Democrats will take more damage from this than the Republicans. Tying this firmly to the Obama campaign by any means necessary can only help that along.
#31

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:20 pm, Laree said:

b/tards that sounds about right to me So a bunch of kids, getting hoisted on their own petards if this story is true. Remember these kids play identity games all the time. Time to make an example of whoever is at the end of this trail, and all who facilitated the CRIME. I never read that word in the whole explanation- CRIME. If this story is remotely true, there is mention of looking for incriminating private material isn’t that “INTENT” I am not a lawyer but I watched Law and Order last night LOL!
#32

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:20 pm, Byantine said:

According to Wikipedia, the Gawker Media Network might be raking in $2 million a year.

I was a fan of some of the other sites on that network, such as consumerist, gizmodo and lifehacker. Once in awhile, they had good tips about things.

Looks like I won’t be giving them my hits/views anymore. Looks like they can do fine without little ol’ me, but then again, they will probably suffer a huge public backlash from this, if not criminal sanctions
#33

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:21 pm, purplepeep said:

Mookie said:
How is Gawker affiliated with 4chan?

I suspect that’s just one of the questions the DOJ and Secret Service will have for the Gawker, Mooks.
#34

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:23 pm, FamilyMan said:

Give me those maladjusted animals for three months and I will return to you responsible polite citizens.
#35

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:23 pm, irving said:

A relatively clever hack, though not one requiring any degree of skill. Just persistence and a little thought.

The interesting part is that someone even more clever would have faked something incriminating and used the real stuff to make it appear legit.

Good thing the account wasn’t hacked by someone actually smart.
#36

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:24 pm, BlameAmericaLast said:

I read though the emails… ALL OF THEM… before I posted, and what I concluded was anticlimactic, there was nothing there, nothing incriminating, nothing that would derail her campaign as I had hoped, all I saw was personal stuff, some clerical stuff from when she was governor…. And pictures of her family

What a piece of trash.
#37

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:24 pm, WrathOfKhan said:

So a bunch of 12 - 21 year olds farting around and thinking it’s both funny and no big deal. Figures.
#38

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:26 pm, Mookie said:

I suspect that’s just one of the questions the DOJ and Secret Service will have for the Gawker, Mooks.

Any affiliation with that festering swamp should put them out of business. It’s a shame, too. Gawker Media has some great blogs that don’t involve politics/celebs. Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Kotaku and Deadspin are big favorites of mine. If this turns into the PR/legal disaster that I think it will, I hope those sites are able to survive in another format. Especially Gizmodo.
#39

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:27 pm, escondidoguy said:

Hackers, identity thieves and internet spammers should all be rounded up and put in jail for a long time. Bigger penalties should be given to these creeps when caught - torture should be allowed in these type cases. Put the creep in stocks in a jail cell and broadcast a webcam from it so all those nerdy morons can see it.
#40

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:28 pm, Tipper said:

nothing that would derail her campaign as I had hoped,

and

I really wanted to get something incriminating which I was sure there would be

= Obama Stooge.
#41

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:28 pm, vickisoup said:

Well, rubico sure stepped in it, didn’t he/she?
Of course, the part about him seeing nothing incriminating, well, that will never be discussed because already the viral rumor is that she was using yahoo “to hide evidence of illegal conduct.”
If rubico wants redemption and to mitigate their culpability, they should go on Olbermann and every other leftist media outlet to proclaim the innocent nature of what they found!
I’ll start holding my breath right….this….second
#42

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:29 pm, Rob said:

irving said: A relatively ~~clever~~ evil hack

Yeah, let’s admire these people… Maybe you can cheer about a rape that is done where no one sees it…
#43

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:30 pm, Rob said:

Give me those maladjusted animals for three months

Put me in charge and give them to me for three minutes and the gene pool would be a little less polluted.
#44

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:30 pm, ClearlyNow said:

I am so relieved that this (utterly foreseeable) vandalism happened early in the insanity, so that proper preventative measures can be implimented and the damage minimized. I totally agree w/ beenthere that the McCain handlers are culpable for failing to anticipate and prevent this obnoxious intrusion.
#45

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:31 pm, WrathOfKhan said:

#3:

Those weren’t passwords; they were the embedded security questions for a person to recover a lost password or to change their account settings.
#46

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:35 pm, BlameAmericaLast said:

What next? Her private medical records?
#47

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:37 pm, irving said:

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:29 pm, Rob said:

Yeah, let’s admire these people… Maybe you can cheer about a rape that is done where no one sees it…

Too much caffeine tonight? Or are you just reading impaired?

I made my disdain for the half-wit pseudo hacker clear. Really. I’ll consider accepting an apology.
#48

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:38 pm, Trae said:

Michelle,

Source please?
#49

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:40 pm, SullaHA said:

Gawker? As in Gizmodo?

Dang. Might have to unsub from that RSS.
#50

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:41 pm, Kokonut said:

Let’s do what the libs do…

It’s all Obama’s fault. They approve this with a *wink* *wink*
#51

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:45 pm, Rob said:

Too much caffeine tonight? Or are you just reading impaired?

I made my disdain for the half-wit pseudo hacker clear. Really. I’ll consider accepting an apology.

You will CONSIDER accepting an apology…

Maybe the black hole of taxing, Obama, will serve you some arugula at the next Hollywood elite fund raiser…

Thank you for “considering” an apology from me… but I work for a living, I am unworthy.
#52

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:48 pm, anathema said:

I just want to say thank you for letting Anonymous defend itself a bit. I frequent 4chan often, and when I saw “/b/tards” under the header, I felt so aggravated that once again the random board was making 4chan look worse than usual. The site really is a bunch of different people coming together for varied interests, and most of them aren’t there to create havoc or break the law.
#53

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:48 pm, Jeddite said:

Perhaps I can use this ugly situation to finally convince my mother that “password”, “password1″ and “abc123″ are very, very, very poor passwords and that rarely, if ever, should the same password be used for different accounts (email, bank accounts, etc).

While this certainly wouldnt be issuing a challenge to anybody in particularly, there’s a reason one of my passwords is 13 characters long.
#54

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:48 pm, radio relay said:

Interesting story.

Funny how the “genius” of these hacks is not any real technical knowledge. Just clever information searches and the time to pursue hunches.
#55

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:50 pm, NJ-Aviator said:

Send_Me said:

I wonder how many job proposals this person will have waiting for him/her when this is all over.

One. Cook in prison.

Hacking into someones Yahoo account is not a feat of spectacular skill.

Important note:

Avoid visiting these sites. They are very often sources of trojans and other viruses. Just opening the page could expose you.

Not talking about gawker, but other sites that are involved in posting their spoils of crime.
#56

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:51 pm, purplepeep said:

Mookie said:
Any affiliation with that festering swamp should put them out of business. It’s a shame, too. Gawker Media has some great blogs that don’t involve politics/celebs. Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Kotaku and Deadspin are big favorites of mine. If this turns into the PR/legal disaster that I think it will, I hope those sites are able to survive in another format. Especially Gizmodo.

Though they can be bumbling as Inspector Clouseau sometimes, Federal agencies are pretty clever with internet crimes. Some illegal sites live for awhile by being hosted in Russia or some other place where they look the other way. But if the person involved in illegal activities is on US soil s/he can be nailed for the activity itself.

The Feds are good at tracking. And everyone leaves “tracks” online. People can do misc things to cover up, but nothing’s 100 % sure - especially as forensic technology evolves.

Sometime you might be out for a walk in a forested area and come upon a desktop or laptop PC that’s in fine working order, but it has no hard drive. It’s common for criminals to remove and/or destroy the hard drive and dump the PC. Even when a person strongly “overwrites” anything of evidentury value, that info can ofttimes still be retrieved. (When a person just deletes something and emptys their wastebasket, it’s still on the harddrive)

If there’s an email trail, it’s usually easy to find and the Feds will follow it. Even tangential cyber-connections, e.g shared mailing lists, can lead to a lot of questions at the very least.
#57

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:54 pm, rightisright said:

hopefully Bush’s DOJ will do their job at least once before his term is over. I wanna be there when they meet their new roomy, Bubba and he says “I hear your into computers, can’t wait to plug you in.”
#58

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:56 pm, kylos said:

radio relay, so much of what is considered “hacking” is really just clever information mining that requires little technical know-how.
#59

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:58 pm, Rob said:

I wonder how many job proposals this person will have waiting for him/her when ~~this is all over~~ in a jail cell with a big man named Bubba.

THOSE proposals are the ones that will stretch him in ways he never thought he would go..
#60

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:58 pm, DirkBelig said:

When I saw the story, I IMed a pal who is quite familiar with the seamier side if teh Intarwebz, “I guess ‘vanhalen69′ wasn’t a very strong PW.”

Many people use ridiculously weak passwords, but the PW recovery features are sometimes weak because they have a small set of questions with easily determinable answers like “Mother’s maiden name” and “Where were you born?” The best are the ones that allow you to set both the question and answer or have a big pool of stock challenge questions.

One very large credit card company has the WORST paasword security for their web site. Passwords can be no longer than eight characters and IIRC are only alphanumeric (i.e. a-z, 0-9) with no special characters like % or # allowed. Changing the password is almost impossible to do without searching around for a reset page. The simplest message board setup has a user control panel where you can put in as long a PW as you may want, but this outfit forces you to use weak passwords and discourages changing them. Insane!

OTOH, a bank I use has you choose an image and a set a phrase when you set up web access. When you go to their site, you enter your user name and then it takes you to a page with your chosen image and phrase. If those parts aren’t there, it indicates you’re at a spoofed web site and to not enter your info. A slight bit more work, but much more secure.
#61

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:58 pm, simcoe said:

I find extremely interesting the uproar, bewilderment, alarm, terror, fear, panic, fright, horror, etc., etc. that Sarah Palin has caused on the left. There is no doubt that her treatment is reprehensible and born out of her status as an unknown, and her adherence to her Christian ethics.

The entrenched bureaucrats, the up-and-comers, and the wannabes (Obies tribe) and their supporters are terrified of this woman and, as they have shown, will do anything they can to publicly discredit her or deface her and if not overtly bash her, they are cowardly enough to stand by and let it all unfold daily and say nothing, believing that they can salve their consciences with silence.

The silence from Washington’s green-eyed women (and men), great leaders all, on both sides of the political fence is deafening. Jealousy and envy is running rampant in the halls of the leaders of democracy and they seem to equate their jealous, cowardly silence with being innocent of any wrongdoing.

Even her running mate, the great John McCain fears stepping up to her aid.
#62

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:58 pm, Lincoln said:

Lolcats, as made famous by http://www.icanhascheezburger.com, originated on /b/.

My God, this explains so many thing about that bizarre site that everybody but me seems to love and adore that it’s not even funny.
#63

On September 17th, 2008 at 9:02 pm, purplepeep said:

NJ-Aviator said:
Avoid visiting these sites. They are very often sources of trojans and other viruses. Just opening the page could expose you.

I think most folks would avoid such garbage anyway, but you’re right. Heck (sorry for the vile cursing!), even seemingly innocent personal webpages can be used to infect a PC. If a person regularly surfs around the XXX sites, it’s a pretty safe bet his/her PC has a bug or two the person doesn’t know about.
#64

On September 17th, 2008 at 9:03 pm, NJ-Aviator said:

Yes Purple… People may link their way to these sites to see what’s going on in situations like this. Bad move to do that.
#65

On September 17th, 2008 at 9:08 pm, Danceswithdachshunds said:

Bruce said: As this thing shows - they are ridiculously easy to hack.

I don’t agree. I think the main problem is that people are faced with having to remember dozens of passwords so they gravitate towards ones easy to remember. I use acronyms myself, for example, ‘FSASYAOFBFOTCANN’, hint = Gettysburg

With numbers, lower case and upper case alone, a 16 character password has 62^16 possibilities? ( = over 10^28)
#66

On September 17th, 2008 at 9:08 pm, TMoney said:

After all the illegal hacking the b/tard did, he still had nothing on her. It sort of makes a body believe that she has nothing to hide. My kind of girl!

Now, DOJ…FRY that b/tard!
#67

On September 17th, 2008 at 9:10 pm, txvet2 said:

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:41 pm, Kokonut said:

Let’s do what the libs do…

It’s all Obama’s fault. They approve this with a *wink* *wink*

Don’t kid yourself. Obama’s hacker brigade is kicking themselves for letting some kid beat them to the punch and screwing everything up for them.
#68

On September 17th, 2008 at 9:11 pm, purplepeep said:

Lincoln said:
My God, this explains so many thing about that bizarre site that everybody but me seems to love and adore that it’s not even funny.

It’s a passe net fad, Lincoln. Like the “numa-numa dance” or “All Your Base Are Belong To Us”. It’s more like “eh - yeah, funny I guess” than anything of lasting comedic value.

Wikipedia has a list of fad stuff like that here:

List of Internet phenomena

Me, I’ll just indulge in resorting to the occasional smiley - I’m not a fad-fan. When you see the same thing thousands of times the novelty usually wears out.
#69

On September 17th, 2008 at 9:12 pm, ajmontana said:

Just use the lotto numbers you pick, noone will ever get it… lmao
#70

On September 17th, 2008 at 9:13 pm, Tennessee Dave said:

On September 17th, 2008 at 8:48 pm, Jeddite said:

While this certainly wouldnt be issuing a challenge to anybody in particularly, there’s a reason one of my passwords is 13 characters long.

At work, before we went to a common access card login, our passwords were 12 characters and had to have at least:
2 upper case letters
2 lower case letters
2 numbers
2 special characters
and couldn’t form a spelled word in any part either forward or backwards.
…….and changed every 90 days.
#71

On September 17th, 2008 at 9:14 pm, flib said:

Problem #1: With SOX and CPNI requirements, these type of hacks are all to simple to perpetrate. This same type of hack is how someone got a hold of Paris Hilton’s private information.

I once stated that if there was a central agency that was able to capture your answers to these questions, they’d have an awful lot of private information you’d not want to share with anyone.

Problem #2: Wikipedia’s information on 4chan is quite accurate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4chan). It is the most popular english imageboard on the internet, and usually is in the top 1000 or so sites on the internet. The normal users of 4chan tend to not like the /b/tards, but realize if they /b/ board did not exist, those idiots would spread their cancer to the rest of the board. It’s kind of like keeping your friends close, but your enemies closer. But at the same time, this Fight Club quote keeps coming to the top of my mind:

“Look, the people you are after are the people you depend on. We cook your meals, we haul your trash, we connect your calls, we drive your ambulances, we guard you while you sleep. Do not f*ck with us.”

…

As a CISSP and someone who has had working relationships with the LEAs and have helped track town a kidnapper through his use of the internet, I’m sure that the fine folks at the San Jose branch of the Secret Service have already issues a secret warrant for log information for those accesses. Then it’s off to Comcast/Verizon/AT&T/etc for customer records.

But yet another Mccain / Paris Hilton crossover. Reminder: Paris Hilton’s hacker got 11 months:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/122559/paris_hilton_hacker_sentenced.html

“The juvenile in question was able to obtain this information by tricking T-Mobile employees into revealing sensitive information, a hacking technique called “social engineering,” and by exploiting a flaw in T-Mobile’s Web site, according to Peter Dobrow, a T-Mobile spokesperson. “The main issue here was social engineering,” he said. “There also was a password reset function that we addressed on our end.” ”

Now, as much as the illegally achieved information shouldn’t be allowed to keep distributing (like the Gawker folk), the legal precedence is there that supports their right to display that information, because though the information was retrieved illegally, Gawker was able to get it legally. (Bartnicki v. Vopper, 532 U.S. 514 (2001) is the relevant case).
#72

On September 17th, 2008 at 9:15 pm, Tennessee Dave said:

Oh….and the system kept track of your passwords and you couldn’t reuse a password for about a year.
#73

On September 17th, 2008 at 9:19 pm, tiredofit08 said:

what was that Clint Eastwood movie?
Hang em High….
#74

On September 17th, 2008 at 9:22 pm, Lincoln said:

By the way Michelle, they’re not bastards. They’re bastard coated bastards with bastard fillings.
#75

On September 17th, 2008 at 9:24 pm, jdsbc98 said:

Donald Trump, who is no fan of the Bush admin, just endorsed McCain on Larry King. I’d like to see him cut some ads for McCain to run in battleground states.
#76

On September 17th, 2008 at 9:25 pm, vickisoup said:

Naaahh…I’m starting to believe it was not Obama’s campaign. If it was, they would have inserted fake e-mail messages and made it far more incriminating.
OK. It wasn’t Obama.
#77

On September 17th, 2008 at 9:25 pm, Lincoln said:

It’s a passe net fad, Lincoln. Like the “numa-numa dance”

Now listen, don’t rag on the Numa Numa dance. That never gets old with me. neither do smileys for that matter.
#78

On September 17th, 2008 at 9:27 pm, purplepeep said:

NJ-Aviator said:
Yes Purple… People may link their way to these sites to see what’s going on in situations like this. Bad move to do that.

In any case, folks should always practice “safe surfing” - with firewall, antiv-irus and anti-spyware all updated and running.

Especially if they use Microsoft Winnows/Internet Explorer - since it’s the most common browser, the bug-makers target it.

Linux is safer since it’s just not used as much as Windows/Internet Explorer, thus the return is less for hackers/virii-writers.

I made my PC “dual-boot” - I can use either Windows or Ubuntu (Linux) when I start it up.
#79

On September 17th, 2008 at 9:30 pm, Sqeek said:

I don’t want to start any rumors, but there’s more on this rubico10 from Tennessee

http://rubico10.newgrounds.com/

links to

http://apocalypticvisions.blogspot.com/

Plays chess under the moniker rubicox
AIM: rubico10

There’s a name: David K3rn3ll
Chess rating over 1900
http://www.memphischess.com/TurnbowKernell.htm
#80

On September 17th, 2008 at 9:30 pm, purplepeep said:

vickisoup said:
OK. It wasn’t Obama.

We’ve got to get him to say that, Vicki. (think: “I am not a crook”)
#81

On September 17th, 2008 at 9:36 pm, Erbo said:

Prosecute all the /b/tards that were in on reposting information from her E-mail account.

Say it with me, everyone: Accessory after the fact.
#82

On September 17th, 2008 at 9:39 pm, OneofThem said:

In my stupid days of old, I would occasionally go to 4chan, so I know how the normal users work; yep, that’s something that Anon would do. SAUCE PLZ
#83

On September 17th, 2008 at 9:40 pm, Laree said:

Huffington Post has screen shots of Sarah Palin’s stolen email.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/17/palins-email-account-hack_n_127184.html

Oh this just gets better and better somebody get a screen shot of Huffington Post before they figure out that they leave tracks back and forth btw their buddies blogs
#84

On September 17th, 2008 at 9:41 pm, ajmontana said:

meanwhile back at the ranch, great interview with the Gov on hannity….and he just handed obama;s rump on a platter to an odopey campette….. roflmao

It’s Killin em and
I Love it!!!

McCain/Palin 08′
Image: Odopeyness eating rump roast again.
#85

On September 17th, 2008 at 9:44 pm, purplepeep said:

DirkBelig
OTOH, a bank I use has you choose an image and a set a phrase when you set up web access. When you go to their site, you enter your user name and then it takes you to a page with your chosen image and phrase. If those parts aren’t there, it indicates you’re at a spoofed web site and to not enter your info. A slight bit more work, but much more secure.

A quick, dead giveaway if a site that’s supposed to be a bank, CC or other senstive site login is a fake copy(i.e. a “phish site”) of the real site:

The address in your browser at such sites should start with “https” not just “http”. The “s” after the http stands for “secure”. HTTPS in full means “HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure”.

If there is no “s” after the “http”, don’t enter any login info.
#86

On September 17th, 2008 at 9:48 pm, PercyJ said:

And right now Obama is probably changing his passwords from 1…2…3…4…5

“Sounds like the code some idiot would have for their luggage”
#87

On September 17th, 2008 at 9:51 pm, ajmontana said:

Ha! now Rove just served up a big platter of rump for Colmes……
Your embarrassing yourself alan!
rove you magnificent b….!!!!

roflmao

It’s Killin em and
I Love it!!!

McCain/Palin 08′
#88

On September 17th, 2008 at 9:51 pm, vickisoup said:

aj, did you just see Karl Rove carve up Alan Colmes? Oh, it was beautiful. Of course, Alan cut to commercial with his panties in a bunch and his tail between his legs.
Ha!
#89

On September 17th, 2008 at 9:52 pm, vickisoup said:

Oh, sorry aj! We must have been typing at the same time.
#90

On September 17th, 2008 at 9:52 pm, ajmontana said:

lol, it is a beautiful thing vic.
#91

On September 17th, 2008 at 9:53 pm, ajmontana said:

ahahahhahahahhahahahha!!!!!
#92

On September 17th, 2008 at 9:58 pm, CO2 Producer said:

Wow, what a story. I need a shower now.

Despicable.
#93

On September 17th, 2008 at 10:00 pm, ajmontana said:

Rove said to catch the hacks and throw em under the bus… i agree….
Roves 100 times smarter than alan clones…. ha!

It’s Killin em and
I Love it!!!

McCain/Palin 08′
#94

On September 17th, 2008 at 10:04 pm, Madam President said:

HAHAHA! 4CHAN MEMBERS!? I KNEW IT!

I wonder if this /b/tard will get caught? They’ve done a lot of stuff (posting flashing .gifs with vivid colors on an Epileptic Seizure support site, raids on Scientology, etc.), but I’ve never heard of them ever being apprehended.

Of course, any member of the “intarwebs” with “troll’s remorse” will simply repeat this mantra, “I did it for the lulz, I did it for the lulz..”

Some of the stuff those guys have done have left me in stitches, but this is going a bit too far.
#95

On September 17th, 2008 at 10:12 pm, aikidoka said:

What Obama inspires, aint it special?
#96

On September 17th, 2008 at 10:24 pm, PKAmmoTroop said:

/b/tards, shoulda guessed. These are the folks that the left are feverishly recruiting because a) the rhetoric gets them excited and b) they’re too stupid to fact check the rhetoric.
#97

On September 17th, 2008 at 10:27 pm, Sqeek said:

Just following up…

http://www.tnstatehousedems.com/view_rep.php?id=32

Could his David be…no, I don’t believe it.

I doubt I’m on the right track here.
#98

On September 17th, 2008 at 10:27 pm, Right_Wired said:

If these /b/tards really thing they are anonymous, they’d better think again.

Every sever, EVERY server logs every action on that server. Every access, every post, every file modification, every file access.

That server is in Fresno, and it will be in the hands of Secret Server before the week is out.
#99

On September 17th, 2008 at 10:30 pm, Wayfaring Stranger said:

…there was nothing there, nothing incriminating, nothing that would derail her campaign as I had hoped,…

This, to me, is the key point in the hacker’s post; Greta Van Susteren has a poll on GretaWire.com, wanting to know if viewers think the hacking “was a harmless prank” or if it “was a political dirty trick.” MM’s post here cinched it - political dirty trick.

…did you just see Karl Rove carve up Alan Colmes?

It was beautiful to behold.
#100

On September 17th, 2008 at 10:32 pm, rlwo2008 said:

“They are hyperactive adolescents in search of amusement and joy, which they often get by upsetting people and making messes. That’s what was happening here.” What an apologetic crock.

Oh, well let’s just have these poor little hyperactive adolescents put on ADHD medication, spanked on their poor little rears, and sent to time out. Then they can have the rest of us clean up their messes. Or, better yet, shut their foul nests down and give them life sentences, which wouldn’t bother me one bit. Hell, I’m even for death sentences. Ask how long do we want to continue nurturing anti-social, borderline, narcissistic, and histrionic personality disorders in our once proud country?