FBI Searches Apartment of Palin Hacking Suspect

FBI agents executed a search warrant Sunday at the apartment of University of Tennessee student David Kernell (pictured). Kernell has been the subject of much Internet chatter in connection with the hacking of Sarah Palin's personal Yahoo! email account. Palin has been widely criticized for using the account for government business, against disclosure rules.

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Last week someone identified only as "rubico" posted a message to 4chan.org's popular /b/ (random) board claiming to have broken into Palin's Yahoo! account, attaching screenshots of emails to prove it. The user did use a proxy server to hide his IP address, but he included enough in the screenshots to show the proxy service provider, Ctunnel.

The "rubico" handle on 4chan.org was linked to the e-mail address "rubico10@yahoo.com," which was in turn linked to David Kernell through Internet searches that uncovered associations between Kernell, the username and the e-mail address on other sites.

A local TV station reported that the warrant was served early Sunday morning, close to midnight. According to a unidentified witness, several agents arrived at The Commons apartment complex of Knoxville around midnight. Apparently several students were partying (no sense letting possible jail time ruin your weekend).

The witness indicated the FBI spent 1 1/2 - 2 hours taking pictures. Kernell's three roommates were subpoenaed to testify this week, a witness also said.

While the FBI seems to be hot on the trail, Gabriel Ramuglia, the webmaster of Ctunnel, said Sunday that he wasn't sure the FBI was on the right trail. He has already IDed the IP address, but said:

"Because I'm not in contact with the Internet service provider, I'm not 100% sure of where the IP is based. But from what I can tell, the IP address doesn't look consistent with the media reports."

In what is bound to bring up comparisons to Watergate (but undeservedly), Kernell is the son of state Rep. Mike Kernell, a Memphis Democrat and chairman of Tennessee's House Government Operations Committee.

Fellow state Rep. John Deberry said of Mike Kernell:

"Mike Kernell is your quintessential Boy Scout. Mike follows the rules. He will almost get on your nerve as far as making sure things are done by the book. If Mike had known anything about this, he would have had a fit on his son. When I saw his reaction when he first heard about it, the absolute fear and shock that was on his face, I realized then he had absolutely nothing to do with it."