That’s scary, when 49% of supposed professionals are either agnostic or actively in support of a private hacker breaking into another person’s account.

“It’s akin to the Wisconsin Dem offspring who spent election eve slashing tires on GOP leased vehicles. ”

It’s akin to walking over to your neighbor’s house, stealing the mail from their mailbox and going through it just to see if there might be anything “interesting” that you might use to publicly embarrass them. Pretty low.

crosspatch on September 21, 2008 at 9:38 PM

I think it’s much more serious than the mailbox analogy. There’s no effort or planning involved in accessing someone’s mailbox.

It’s akin to spending 45 minutes picking the lock to the front door of the residence of someone powerful who works in your dad’s company and whom you know your dad doesn’t like, gaining access to that person’s house, rifling through all of that person’s private documents to try to find something that you hope will kill their reputation, and then distributing those personal items to thousands of that person’s enemies.

I found dear old dad’s statement to be interesting.

I had nothing to do with it, I had no knowledge or anything,” Mike Kernell told the AP. “I was not a party to anything of this nature at all,” he added. “I wasn’t in on this — and I wouldn’t know how to do anything like that.”

Rep. Mike Kernell, a Memphis Democrat and chairman of Tennessee’s House Government Operations Committee, “doth protest too much, methinks.”

I have friends who’ve had their identities stolen.

The death penalty for hackers sounds about right to me.

MarkTheGreat on September 22, 2008 at 7:11 AM

I concur, the penalties for hackers are far to light, especially for the grief they cause.

That would make Nancy Pelosi president.

The death penalty for hackers sounds about right to me.

“popcorn”. Kernell = popcorn.

rockmom on September 21, 2008 at 6:12 PM

New York Post headline:
Kernell Gets Popped.

Just maximizing the embarrassment by crashing this kid’s party, a sort of buzzkill di tutti buzzkills? Kind of jerky — yet kind of awesome.

Ain’t no party
like a kernell party
c’os a kernell party
gets raided by the FBI at 1 AM

But what if it doesn’t stop at the kid? What if? Really who does the kid kibitz with? I would think the FBI, might be interested in who he had in his address book, and who he was communicating with about this awesome idea he had, to hack into a Vice Presidential Candidates private email (conspiracy)
Dr Evil on September 21, 2008 at 10:56 PM

The Tennessee papers are reporting that the FBI served several subpoenas on his friends — which is probably the best explanation for the late-night party-time visit. Catching all the little cockroaches in one place at the same time has a cool efficiency about it — and with no media around to sensationalize and misreport, even better.

I think he let himself be used as a proxy (like a pawn), for someone else to get into the account.. (he said it was only 1 proxy, that may be true.. one proxy “which” he was, maybe the other people are the real ones to blame.. Obama’s campaign)

for this kid to hot be able to Secure his IP, better than that, though more than one? and… then to post the full screen shot? he was wanting to get caught!

Chakra Hammer on September 21, 2008 at 11:19 PM

Yeah I agree. Something feels not right, too easy. Time will tell.

Sounds like someone won an all expense paid trip to Club Gitmo.

El_Terrible on September 21, 2008 at 6:08 PM

Hopefully.

Or better yet, the alleged FEMA camps they’ve built up in Alaska.

I wonder about the father’s role: What did he know, and when did he know it?

What were they doing serving a search warrant circa 1 a.m. on Sunday morning? Just maximizing the embarrassment by crashing this kid’s party, a sort of buzzkill di tutti buzzkills? Kind of jerky — yet kind of awesome.

I actually feel this might be the one thing the FBI has done that well connect with this kids brain. He will see that as totally uncool. Somewhere down the line he will connect it with being publicly embarrassed by an invasion of his privacy, though this one is legal. Hopefully he will understand the irony of it and appreciate the enormity of what he has done wrong it was now that he has become a victim as well.

I think it would be best to let him contemplate that for about two to five years in a federal pen. Then maybe he will get it.

Just maximizing the embarrassment by crashing this kid’s party, a sort of buzzkill di tutti buzzkills? Kind of jerky — yet kind of awesome.

I guess. Don’t know what me and my buds would have done if raided by the Feds, no less, in the middle of a bong party.

Can you imagine? “Put down the bong and stand against the wall!” Well, shit. So much for first semester.

for this kid to hot be able to Secure his IP, better than that, though more than one? and… then to post the full screen shot? he was wanting to get caught!

The best evidence of his intrusion is probably on the hard drive of his computer–if the hard drive is still there and intact.

My guess is that they were able to convince the Federal Magistrate to allow special night time service of the search warrant based upon the exigency that Kernell might destroy the hard drive or what is on it at any time. Obviously he knows he’s a suspect and has access to his own computer.

CalFed on September 21, 2008 at 9:41 PM

I already know he’s an idiot. But if the hard drive is still in his computer, then I’ve drastically overestimated his intelligence.

I’m sure more than one Anonymous told this tripfag that the point of anonymity is so that they can’t identify you.

apollyonbob on September 21, 2008 at 10:33 PM

He used a tripcode? Epic Fail