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FBI agents served a search warrant Sunday at the Knoxville, Tenn., apartment of a college student whom Internet sleuths last week had named as the hacker who accessed Gov. Sarah Palin's e-mail account, a local television station reported.
But the Georgia man who runs the proxy service used to mask the hacker's identity said that the IP address he's traced "doesn't look consistent" with reports in the media that have focused on David Kernell.
According to a report by WBIR, Knoxville's NBC affiliate, agents served the warrant early Sunday at the residence of Kernell, 20. He is the son of Mike Kernell, a Democratic state legislator from Memphis.
A witness told WBIR that the agents arrived at The Commons of Knoxville early Sunday, and spent about one-and-a-half to two hours searching Kernell's apartment. The witness also said that Kernell's roommates were subpoenaed and must testify this week in Chattanooga.
Kernell, a student at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, was linked to the hack of Palin's account on blogs and message boards after someone identified only as "rubico" posted a message on a popular board claiming to have accessed Palin's account by using Yahoo's password reset feature. Others subsequently connected the rubico handle to the e-mail address "rubico10@yahoo.com," which was in turn linked to Kernell through Internet searches that uncovered connections between him, the username and the e-mail address on such sites as YouTube.
Last week, Kernell's father confirmed that his son was the person being named on blogs and boards in connection with the Palin hack.
The U.S. Department of Justice also confirmed there has been "investigatory activity" in Knoxville regarding the Palin case, said the WBIR report. No charges, however, have been filed, and the warrant was not publicly available, the DOJ spokeswoman told the television station.
A search conducted Sunday by Computerworld on the federal court system's electronic database revealed no complaints or warrants issued against Kernell.
And Gabriel Ramuglia, the webmaster of Ctunnel, an Athens, Ga.-based proxy service used by the hacker, said Sunday that he wasn't sure the FBI was investigating the right man.
At the FBI's request, Ramuglia had searched the Ctunnel logs for evidence of the Palin account hack. He reported his findings to the agency Saturday.
The Leader in Network Knowledge
Comments (7)
A real hacker could have went in and left no tracks...By Anonymous on September 26, 2008, 9:52 pmA real hacker could have went in and left no tracks. Hmm...maybe Palin should use her government email?
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Why isn't anyone discussing the REAL story?By Anonymous on September 23, 2008, 9:18 pmWhile I by no means condone the hacking of the account, an important factor involved in this case that is not being discussed as much is why the account was hacked...
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DesiderataBy Anon on September 23, 2008, 6:51 pmCivic virtue isn't usually promoted by law-breaking. Not unless the law in question is itself a case of injustice. Unfortunately busy folk in business and government...
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Sounds to me like the boy isBy Anon on September 23, 2008, 12:48 pmSounds to me like the boy is a patsy or not very bright, not to hard to spoof IP and MAC then go through an onion network or darknet to do your bidding with yahoo...
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But who is the hacker?By Anonymous on September 23, 2008, 9:59 amInteresting that it continues to be downplayed that the hacker was the son of a prominent Democrat KY legislator.
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