A Tennessee jury has an important message for cyber hackers.
A college student who hacked into Sarah Palin’s e-mail account and posted some of its contents on the Internet was found guilty Friday.
The jury convicted David Kernell, 22, on two charges: unauthorized access to a computer and obstruction of justice. He was found not guilty of wire fraud, and the jury failed to reach a verdict on identity theft.
UPDATE: You’ll find the official Department of Justice news release on Mr. Kernell’s conviction here. It includes some background on the case: (emphasis is mine)
According to evidence presented at trial, on Sept. 16, 2008, Kernell, a resident of Knoxville, obtained unauthorized access to Gov. Palin’s personal e-mail account by resetting the account password. Evidence showed that after answering a series of security questions that allowed him to reset the password and gain access to the e-mail account, Kernell read the contents of the account and made screenshots of the e-mail directory, e-mail content, and other personal information. Kernell posted screenshots of the e-mails and other personal information to a public website. Kernell also posted the new e-mail account password that he had created, thus providing access to the account by others.
Evidence at trial showed that Kernell became aware of a possible FBI investigation on Sept. 16, 2008, following the illegal entry into the e-mail account. The evidence further showed that Kernell began to delete records and documents with the intent to impede an anticipated FBI investigation.
