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Is Palin's hacker a Tennessee college student?

The person who hacked into Sarah Palin's e-mail account could be the son of a Tennessee state representative, according to mixed reports.

Robert Vamosi Former Editor
As CNET's former resident security expert, Robert Vamosi has been interviewed on the BBC, CNN, MSNBC, and other outlets to share his knowledge about the latest online threats and to offer advice on personal and corporate security.
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Robert Vamosi

There are mixed reports on Friday whether or not the son of a Tennessee state representative has been contacted by the FBI or Secret Service in connection with Sarah Palin's hacked Yahoo Mail account.

The father, Democratic Rep. Mike Kernell has told Knoxville News Sentinel and The Tennessean that despite a lot of online chatter, no formal contact has been made.

The person who gained access to Palin's e-mail account did so by guessing details of her life, then changed the e-mail password to "popcorn."

Using the online nickname Rubico, someone posted details of the hack to a forum on the 4Chan.org Web site starting on Tuesday. Password-protected zip files containing the contents of the now-deleted e-mail account once belonging to the Republican vice-presidential candidate have also been posted to the forum.

Subsequent posts by Rubico to the /b/ board over the last few days have provided additional insight into how the hack was carried out, although many of the posts have now been deleted.