McCain's latest as dubious as his previous

I know that you like "debating" about as much as I and it keeps this forum interesting. But, I'm not being facitious when I say that I really do like to learn new things (old though I might be) and if you make me do that then it's a good experience!

Here is another reason for my stance:

Sarah Palin's Personal E-Mail Account Compromised | Cleveland Leader

My favorite user posted comment about this story:

"McCain-Palin 2008 Campaign Manager Rick Davis: 'This is a shocking invasion of the Governor's privacy and a violation of law. 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'..."

When someone does this sort of hacking/eavesdropping/snooping to a government official, it's called "a shocking invasion of...privacy and a violation of law."

When the government does it to you, it's called the "Patriot Act."

Now, you said you wanted to learn something... so here you go.

How was Pallie's email hacked? Simple. Yahoo allows password changes by answering "challenge" questions. It's great if you forget your password/etc.

Palin's challenge questions were:

(1) Her home ZIP code
(2) Her birthdate

I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to figure either one of those out. A quick run to Wikipedia's page about Palin and a google search for "Wasilla zip code" turns up both answers in a matter of seconds.

This is one of the places where the user becomes the weak link in security. The same thing apparently happened to Paris Hilton when one of her email challenge questions was the name of her dog. Again, anybody with two brain cells to rub together could get that instantly.

If you're worried about stuff like this, change your challenge answers to something WAY out there. If it wants you to fill in what city you were born in, tell it "Jupiter". Favorite color? Ultraviolet. So on and so forth.

Might I say this: This "hack" was not political. There is no "liberal conspiracy" (sorry Drnaline) at work here. The person/group/affiliation known as Anonymous does this stuff for pure sh!ts and giggles. These are the same guys that constantly ripped into the Church of Scientology. Like I said, pure laughs and nothing more. In fact, it was another user on the board where this was initially posted that locked the account with a new password and informed Pallie.

Being a hacker/cracker is 50% what you know about computer systems and 50% what you know about the people sitting behind them.

It's scary to realize that people will do these things! I understand that Michael Steele was also a victim of this a couple of years, but it was politically motivated.

I hope they catch these guys and make sure they do time.

In this situation, with what has already come of this, Palin needs to understand that there is an EXTRAORDINARILY sharp double edged sword which makes this story quite interesting.

Palin has now been shown to be using a personal email address for government business, a SERIOUS no-no. The reason for it being such is that, due to it being personal, it allows for circumvention of public records and FoIA requests. Useful for flying under the radar. Many have accused her of doing this but nothing has come of it because there was no proof of her doing that.

Now there is proof.

So, should she sic the black suits on this guy and have it FULLY known that she did in fact commit an ethics violation, or let it go and take the black eye?

Either way, the heat's been turned up a notch.

Apparently there has been nothing to be afraid of though so I would say sic the dogs on it!

I am more comfortable with one of my email servers over my work email server. It is just easier for me to navigate, etc. Just as I still cling (like my guns and religion) to Word Perfect! I taught WP classes back in the early days and find it much easier and quicker for me to use than Word. You know, teaching an old dog....

In a government position, doing such a thing is a cardinal no-no for the reasons I have specified. Also, it was a cakewalk for these guys to pop her personal email account wide open, it would be a bit harder (and carry MANY more implications) to crack a government email server. Not saying it can't be done, just that there are many more strings tied to it.

This also gives the proof required to open investigations... it's solid probable cause, regardless of how the information was acquired (the investigators did not do anything illegal, so it's all green lights for them).