Sarah Palin hacker convicted
In late 2008, David C. Kennel obtained the Yahoo e-mail address of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, and then used simple deduction to answer the "challenge question" that would grant access to her password and subsequently to her e-mail inbox.
Kennel, son of Tennessee Democratic state representative Mike Kennel, got access to Palin's Yahoo e-mail account while the former Governor was on the Republican presidential campaign trail with Arizona Senator John McCain. Kennel posted some of the contents of Palin's e-mail account online, including both "work-related" and personal information, such as the mobile phone number of her daughter Bristol Palin.
Today, the 22-year-old was convicted by a federal jury of one count of misdemeanor unauthorized access to obtain information from a computer, and one count of obstruction of justice. He was found not guilty of wire fraud, and the identity theft charge was dropped after that portion was declared a mistrial.
Kennel faces a maximum of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine for accessing Palin's e-mail account, reading the contents, taking screenshots of e-mails and personal information, and posting them on the Internet.
The obstruction of justice charge is a bit more serious. After Kennel learned of a possible FBI investigation into his behavior, he deleted records and documents that pointed to him. For doing this, his charge is 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
If Kennel was found guilty of all four of the charges, he would have faced up to 50 years in prison.