Palin Update: Tenn. Student Implicated in Hack

Federal Bureau of Investigation agents searched the apartment of University of Tenn. student, David Kernell, early Sunday morning as part of an ongoing investigation into the hacked Yahoo e-mail account of Gov. Sarah Palin.

According to a report by WBIR, Knoxville's NBC affiliate, when FBI agents arrived at Kernell's apartment a party was underway. Some reports claim that Kernell and his friends fled the apartment once federal agents arrived. After emptying the house, agents proceeded to take photographs of the apartment for several hours. So far the police have not released any documentation, such as a search warrant, to the public.

Kernell's three roommates received subpoenas and could testify in court in Chattanooga this week. So far no charges have been filed against Kernell, but a grand jury is reportedly set to convene on Tuesday. As suspected earlier, Kernell is the son of Mike Kernell, a Democratic state representative. Kernell Sr. told Wired.com that while he was aware of the suspicions about his son he did not ask him about it over concerns that he may have to testify in court.

Last Thursday, a user calling himself Rubico, posted a message about how he had broken into Palin's account on the Internet forum "4chan", a forum connected to the online troublemakers "anonymous." According to Rubico, all he did was go through a relatively simple process of resetting Palin's Yahoo e-mail password. After the 4chan posting, Rubico realized he'd gone too far, especially since he'd only used one proxy service to hide his IP address. Gabriel Ramuglia, who owns the proxy service in question, CTunnell.com, is reportedly cooperating with investigators to find the IP address of the hacker.

As a result of the accusations against him, Kernell's privacy has also been invaded. A Knoxville blogger has reportedly posted images of Kernell's Facebook page on her blog. Although at the time of this writing the her site was inaccessible.

In his 4chan posting, Rubico said, "Earlier it was just some prank to me, I really wanted to get something incriminating which I was sure there would be...well there WAS NOTHING." If Kernell does turn out to be Rubico, the joke is on him. If charged, Kernell will most likely face a misdemeanor charge for his actions making with little or no jail time.

According to U.S. Department of Justice there have been no charges filed related to this case.

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