I see in the news and blogs tonight that a group has hacked into Gov. Sarah Palin’s Yahoo email and posted some of her photos and messages. What were they thinking? A blog on Wired Network reports,

FBI spokesman Brian Hale said, “The FBI is aware of the alleged hacking incident involving Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and is coordinating with the United States Secret Service on the matter.”

Supposedly, the hackers were interested in this because, ” Palin has come under fire for using private e-mail accounts to conduct state business. Critics allege that she uses the account to get around public records laws, as the Bush administration has also been charged with doing.”

Nice. So they hacked the email of one of the most protected people in the country. Its hard to condone this kind of activity, regardless of the suspicions about Ms. Palin. I would assume it was done by irresponsible and reckless people trying to make a name for themselves, although they will probably find themselves in jail now.

Yahoo apparently has little to say on it, and its unclear whether the success of the attack is Yahoo’s fault or not. According to SC Magazine, a publication about IT security, web-based email accounts are not difficult for professionals to hack. Dedicated hackers can use a variety of methods, such as running programs that try every possible combination of passwords, or using sniffers installed to capture keyboard strokes. It appears that in Palin’s case, the hacker may have been able to request a password reset by answering security questions using publicly available information.