On September 16th, 2008, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s Yahoo account was hacked by a person calling themselves Rubico. The event got coverage by all the major news corporations and created a general fuss. Palin used the Yahoo account for government affairs as well as a personal account, causing coverage on the event to call the hacking an invasion of privacy as well as of government affairs. According to Rubico’s post on 4chan, which included some pictures of Palin’s account, his purpose in breaking into the account was to find some bit of information that would derail her campaign. Upon finding no such information, he simply changed the password, and collapsed into panic mode, under the realization of what he had just done.
This story caused a sensation in America. One of the story’s elements that many writers accentuated in their story was the sheer ease with which the hacker was able to gain access to Palin’s account. Rubicon himself said that he was able to find all the information he needed, which included Palin’s zip code and where she met her husband, using public resources that were readily available, such as Wikipedia. The idea of a complete strange having so much seemingly personal information at their fingertips is an alarming concept. The fear that this story evokes is at least part of the reason why this story got so big. The facts of the story don’t seem all that frightening when one considers that the hacker didn’t do anything malicious. He didn’t reveal any of Palin’s personal information, nor did he sabotage it.
While it may be that Rubicon didn’t perform any really harmful acts, the illegality of his actions, and his apparently malicious intents are still a factor to consider. He openly stated that his goal was to find something incriminating. It could be that the only reason nothing serious happened was because he didn’t find what he needed.
Another aspect to consider is the fact that what happened to Sarah Palin probably won’t happen to just anyone. Palin is a prominent figure in society, and, considered a bit of a celebrity (insert Beth’s quote). The average citizen doesn’t have a Wikipedia page that has all sorts of information about their personal life.
On the other hand, the experts of the internet community seem to agree that using a personal question to secure an e-mail account is not the best method. According to them, a question is flimsy protection, and can be answered easily by someone who has access to the right information. There also seems to be a consensus that the average internet user does not know how to create a secure password (insert Bill’s quote)
While the Palin incident is not a sign of impending doom for the internet community, it should not be shrugged off either. The event is not a threat to the security of America, but it may be an insight into what could be a potential threat for the daily internet user.
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