FBI Net Tightens On Palin E-Mail Hacker

Rubico claimed on the /b/ Web board that Palin's account was hacked through Yahoo's "Forgot My Password" reset feature, which prompts a user to answer a "secret question," such as name of their first pet or grade school, before allowing them to reset the e-mail account password. In addition to more basic prompts about things like Palin's date of birth, getting the secret question answered correctly would allow a hacker to take over the governor's Yahoo account, Rubico wrote.

The secret question, according to Rubico, asked where Palin had met her husband, information the self-proclaimed hacker was able to discover through an Internet search. Through such passive "social engineering" rather than a technical attack on the Yahoo account, Rubico was able to reset the password to "popcorn" and access Palin's e-mail.

But Rubico's account also included an e-mail address that bloggers and other media sleuths linked to David Kernell, now apparently under investigation for the alleged cybercrime. Rubico, in the 4chan.org post, seems worried about not taking enough steps to protect himself or herself from discovery:

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 s*** ever got to the FBI I was f***ed, I panicked, i still wanted the stuff out there but I didn't know how to rapids**t [upload to file-hosting site RapidShare.com] 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 ...

Rubico's reference to "a proxy, only one" seemed to be confirmed when it came to light last week that the Palin e-mail hacker or hackers had used an Internet proxy service called Ctunnel to mask their identity while accessing the Yahoo account. Ctunnel, based in Athens, Ga., is run by Ramuglia, whom numerous media accounts say is cooperating with authorities in their investigation.

Ramuglia, however, isn't ready to pin the blame on Kernell. The webmaster has confirmed that he knows the IP address of the Palin e-mail hacker and has passed it on to authorities, but on Sunday told Computerworld's Gregg Keizer "that he wasn't sure the FBI was investigating the right man."

"Because I'm not in contact with the Internet service provider, I'm not 100 percent sure of where the IP is based," Ramuglia reportedly told Computerworld. "But from what I can tell, the IP address doesn't look consistent with media reports."