Palin e-mail hacker indicted

AFP: Plain email hacker indicted

Okay, this pisses me off. I can’t even estimate the number of Americans whose e-mail accounts, and, worse yet, BANK ACCOUNTS get hacked every day. Does the FBI give a damn? Nope. Hell, Paris friggin’ Hilton’s Sidekick hack made the news, but I don’t recall the FBI getting involved. But, one technology challenged VP candidate gets hacked in a really easy and obvious way, with no real harm done, and it’s a federal crime.

Hey FBI, here’s a tip: protect the candidates’ e-mail BEFORE they get hacked, not after. It’s Palin’s (or her handlers) own fault for using a rampantly insecure e-mail system as a public figure.

This guy didn’t threaten Palin. He didn’t attack anyone. He didn’t hurt anyone or anything. He did the same thing that thousands of reporters do every day: he dug around and, using publicly available information, attained something that wasn’t intended to be publicly available.

The only entity that has a right to do anything to this “hacker” (and the term is used very loosely here, IMO) is Yahoo. Yahoo can kick him right the hell out for violating their TOS. But, if the FBI is going after this as a crime, I better see them go after every other person who has had ANY of their accounts hacked.

Grr.