A Hacker’s Confession, Hope He Doesn’t Drop The Soap

Posted on September 17, 2008 by Uppity Woman

Malkin has printed the story as told by the original Sarah Palin E-Mail hacker. I kind of feel sorry for the guy who did it, since his own email address is recorded, which means the FBI is probably at his house right now. And even if his listed email address isn’t real, the subpoenas for his IP address  to the web site where he posted are flying at this very moment–if the FBI even needs a subpoena in this case. This is a federal offense. It’s very sad what young people will do for kicks these days….and for Barack Obama.

Anyways, here’s his story, or at least it’s the story Told. Apparently, a person monitored what was going on and someone also warned Palin’s friend.  So he was kind enough to pass the story on To Michelle Malkin, who in turn was kind enough to print it. Go to Malkin’s site for screen shots of the correspondence. Here goes:

I missed the original incident, but monitored the discussion and repostings afterward to see what I could learn about what had happened and who was responsible.

There are several misconceptions and errors in most accounts of this story, including your post. Most significantly, the perpetrator(s) were not members of an infamous group of hackers. I don’t blame you for misunderstanding this, because in all the media coverage regarding the war with Scientology the media has completely failed to explain what Anonymous is.

Anonymous is not exactly a group. It is people using the umbrella of a web discussion board for cover to be as offensive, funny, strange, or whatever as they want.

Here’s the short version: there is a site called 4chan.org. It is an image posting site based on a popular Japanese site. The site contains multiple boards, each of which is dedicated to a particular subject. The most notorious of these boards is called /b/. /b/ is the board dedicated to random images. /b/tards, as its denizens are called, are interested only in their own amusement. Their sense of humor runs the gamut from sick to cruel to merely strange. Lolcats, as made famous by http://www.icanhascheezburger.com, originated on /b/. A lot of memes start there. There is a lot of racist humor — pictures of excited and happy black people in proximity to fried chicken abound. There is a lot of pornography. Sometimes it’s child pornography, although posting that is moderator grounds for banning — no, it’s not a pedophile ring; /b/tards post it because they think doing so is funny.

4chan does not log participants. Most people don’t use or have usernames, and post instead as “Anonymous.” And every so often, a number of /b/’s anonymous denizens decide to make somebody’s life hell. Sometimes it’s a random person who offends /b/’s sense of propriety. Sometimes it’s a forum dedicated to a serious topic. Sometimes it’s Scientology. And Tuesday, it was Sarah Palin. Or it would have been.

Sarah Palin’s email account was hacked by one person. Not a group.

This person read her emails, then posted the username and password on /b/. This happened at about 4 in the morning on Tuesday. The idea was that the sea of Anonymous /b/tards would download the emails, upload porn, and cause all manner of mischief. Anonymous is not a group of hackers. Anonymous is more like gremlins. They are hyperactive adolescents in search of amusement and joy, which they often get by upsetting people and making messes. That’s what was happening here. Anonymous did not hack the account. A hacker tried to throw Sarah Palin to Anonymous. Not all of Anonymous was having it. One person threw a crowbar in the works. Other /b/tards were displeased to miss a chance at the lulz. The moderators stepped in. The thread was deleted.

Later, other individuals created threads reposting screencaps of emails and the inbox, and put together a collection of these files. All mentions of these were purged by the moderators. So then some bright /b/tards decided to email what little stuff they had to the media.

That’s pretty much it.

This afternoon, in a thread that was later deleted, an individual claiming to be the original poster gave his account of what happened. I’ve attached screencaps. Here’s the text. The original poster used the name “rubico.” The linked email address for the poster was rubico10@yahoo.com.

This is what rubico said:

rubico 09/17/08(Wed)12:57:22 No.85782652 Hello, /b/ as many of you might already know, last night sarah palin’s yahoo was “hacked” and caps were posted on /b/, i am the lurker who did it, and i would like to tell the story.

In the past couple days news had come to light about palin using a yahoo mail account, it was in news stories and such, a thread was started full of newfags trying to do something that would not get this off the ground, for the next 2 hours the acct was locked from password recovery presumably from all this bullshit spamming.

after the password recovery was reenabled, it took seriously 45 mins on wikipedia and google to find the info, Birthday? 15 seconds on wikipedia, zip code? well she had always been from wasilla, and it only has 2 zip codes (thanks online postal service!)

the second was somewhat harder, the question was “where did you meet your spouse?” did some research, and apparently she had eloped with mister palin after college, if youll look on some of the screenshits that I took and other fellow anon have so graciously put on photobucket you will see the google search for “palin eloped” or some such in one of the tabs.

I found out later though more research that they met at high school, so I did variations of that, high, high school, eventually hit on “Wasilla high” I promptly changed the password to popcorn and took a cold shower…

>> rubico 09/17/08(Wed)12:58:04 No.85782727
this is all verifiable if some anal /b/tard wants to think Im a troll, and there isn’t any hard proof to the contrary, but anyone who had followed the thread from the beginning to the 404 will know I probably am not, the picture I posted this topic with is the same one as the original thread.I read though the emails… ALL OF THEM… before I posted, and what I concluded was anticlimactic, there was nothing there, nothing incriminating, nothing that would derail her campaign as I had hoped, all I saw was personal stuff, some clerical stuff from when she was governor…. And pictures of her family
I then started a topic on /b/, peeps asked for pics or gtfo and I obliged, then it started to get big

Earlier it was just some prank to me, I really wanted to get something incriminating which I was sure there would be, just like all of you anon out there that you think there was some missed opportunity of glory, well there WAS NOTHING, I read everything, every little blackberry confirmation… all the pictures, and there was nothing, and it finally set in, THIS internet was serious business, yes I was behind a proxy, only one, if this shit ever got to the FBI I was fucked, I panicked, i still wanted the stuff out there but I didn’t know how to rapidshit all that stuff, so I posted the pass on /b/, and then promptly deleted everything, and unplugged my internet and just sat there in a comatose state

Then the white knight fucker came along, and did it in for everyone, I trusted /b/ with that email password, I had gotten done what I could do well, then passed the torch , all to be let down by the douchebaggery, good job /b/, this is why we cant have nice things
The “white knight fucker” was the /b/tard who thought that going through Sarah Palin’s email wasn’t cool. He logged in, changed the password, and sent an email to a friend of Palin’s warning her and letting her know the new password. Unfortunately, he then posted a screenshot of this email to let the other /b/tards know their fun was over. He failed to blank the password, and they all tried to log in and change the password — which tripped the automated Yahoo! freeze. Since then, the account has been deleted. “Rapidshit” refers to rapidshare.com — i.e., rubico wanted to download the emails, put them into one file, and put that file up on rapidshare for /b/tards and the world at large to download. But he panicked, or didn’t know how to download the emails, and so pawned that task off on Anonymous, which he didn’t realize wasn’t monolithic and in his favor.
As Paul Harvey would say, “And now you know…. the rest of the story.”

  

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47 Responses

  1. Robert W., on September 17th, 2008 at 11:34 PM Said:

    I disagree with you on one point: I feel NO SYMPATHY for the original hacker whatsoever. He (it’s almost certainly a “he”) is a pathetic human being who thinks he was so clever. Now let’s see how clever he’ll be to get away from Brutus & Jose in the prison showers.

    Having worked in I.T. most of my adult life, let me share something with you & your readers which you might not fully realize: Most hackers are passive-aggressive males who have been shunned by the “real” world since their early teens. Back then they were often shunned by girls and so drifted into the anonymous world of computers and the Internet.

    IQ-wise, many are quite smart but have lived much of their lives in such an isolated manner in front of a computer screen that they often don’t have any semblance of what we would call a moral fibre aka “a sense of right & wrong”.

    So for them, pulling a stunt like this is a challenge. To show how smart he was, the hacker (or team of hackers) psychologically HAD TO post it onto that website. It gave them a sense of power and accomplishment.

    And soon, I hope we all find out that it will land them into prison for AT LEAST 5 years.

  2. ugsome, on September 18th, 2008 at 1:27 AM Said:

    The /b/tards were also featured in a New York Times article, “The Trolls Among Us.” http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/magazine/03trolls-t.html?pagewanted=all

  3. indianasnyder, on September 18th, 2008 at 2:44 AM Said:

    I agree! Send these computer geeks to the slammer! I’m sure the boys behind bars could use some new girlfriends!

  4. Grail Guardian, on September 18th, 2008 at 3:36 AM Said:

    Maybe we should sic the Covert Comic on him

  5. socalannie, on September 18th, 2008 at 5:03 AM Said:

    Uppity, in case you didn’t get a chance to see this yet, here is the Campbell Brownose – Lynn Rothschild piece:

    http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/09/17/ec.lady.obama.cnn?iref=videosearch

    Campbell is as obnoxious as usual & Lady R laughs her off.

  6. Uppity Woman, on September 18th, 2008 at 7:07 AM Said:

    OUCH socal! She ate her campbell’s lunch and waited for her dessert!!

  7. Uppity Woman, on September 18th, 2008 at 7:10 AM Said:

    Class warfare is EXACTLY what Obama is doing. Now here’s a woman who was born middle class and achieved the American Dream everyone talks about. And because she did it through HARD WORK and INGENUITY, she is reviled by those who sit on their asses and achieve NOTHING. If you DO NOTHING, you HAVE NOTHING.

    Ironically all the spoiled brats similar to Bill Ayers when he was in college, who lived off their PARENTS’ largesse are the ones who support Obama. And Lady R, who did it on her own (before she “married well”) is reviled. How amusing.

  8. Uppity Woman, on September 18th, 2008 at 7:12 AM Said:

    mcnorman, I held back that post with the “emails”. I haven’t seen those. Do you have a link? We want to make sure somebody isn’t just pulling a stunt and using the rest of us to perpetuate it.

  9. Uppity Woman, on September 18th, 2008 at 7:31 AM Said:

    Robert I do agree with your assessment and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if this hacker is barely an adult, if even that. It’s where the ” Parents’ Basement dweller” idea came from. Many of them are tied to their computers because they HAVE no other life. THen they no longer WANT another life because they are tied to their computers. Not being able to fit in with the world around them, the computer becomes The World. And that in itself is a good reason to feel sorry for tnem. The “challenge” is the challenge to their intelligence, which is usually quite high….and kind of wasted. But at least occasionally, these kinds grow up to do something great. They just are never happy in society though, because the only society they know is one of anonymity on the internet.. Many of them commit a computer crime like this young one did or they do themselves in. Sad, but true.

  10. imustprotest, on September 18th, 2008 at 8:38 AM Said:

    That Campell Brown sounded like a spoiled child arguing with her mom. In all of my life I have never seen the media, the so-called “journalists” act so unprofessionally. It was a disgrace! She asked Ms. Rothschild a question and then won’t let her answer….or mor accurately, because she didn’t like the answer, she talked over her, cut her off, and mocked her with voice tone and body language. Campbell Brown was also hostile, much like Charles Gibson. I guess it shows their desperation at this point, they must be really scared that their precious is losing.

  11. raGing, on September 18th, 2008 at 8:39 AM Said:

    hack kits for yahoo, msn, aol, messenger apps, are commonly available. those accounts aren’t secure & it’s best that Palin was informed now than later. too bad her friends/family addresses were compromised also.
    fortunately this kid will never work legally in IT again if he’s convicted.

  12. Mary Ellen, on September 18th, 2008 at 8:55 AM Said:

    These hackers are the kind of people who scream the loudest about rights of privacy and how wrong it is for the government to listen in on our phone calls and read our e-mails. But if it’s THEM reading our e-mails, that’s nothing but good clean fun.
    The original hacker deserves jail time and should be made an example to all who want to take that chance. I also think the site should be taken down and banned.

  13. Mary Ellen, on September 18th, 2008 at 8:56 AM Said:

    Campbell Brown is one of the worst I’ve seen in long time. The words “Journalistic Integrity” are foreign to her, just like the rest of her cohorts in the “news” today.

  14. Uppity Woman, on September 18th, 2008 at 8:59 AM Said:

    Her password wasn’t hacked using applets. The hacker used the LOST PASSWORD option. The “security” questions are so obvious it wasn’t hard to get in. As a public figure, most of her answers to those questions were now easily known.

  15. Uppity Woman, on September 18th, 2008 at 9:03 AM Said:

    Mary Ellen, I found it ironic that a Limousine Liberal like Campbell would call somebody else elitist. That’s the humor to Democratic liberals. Kerry is one. So is Gore. They fly around in private planes and live luscious lives themselves, yet they have the audacity to criticize others for it..

    It’s the deliberate class warfare trick. Obama is doing exactly that. Yet, he lives in a mansion himself. He wants to be KING so he can be on par with the rest of his friends. Yet he pretends to “relate” to the poor. I’m telling you this class warfare game is going to be the end for the party. The very fact that they aren’t twenty points ahead is a sign of doom for them. People do NOT agree with their warfare against anybody who isn’t doing Well. It is the antithesis to the “American Dream”. That’s the point Lady R makes. Why work when you can just take somebody else’s money? Socialism. The Omen of who they really are.

  16. Barbara, on September 18th, 2008 at 9:04 AM Said:

    That is so dang PATHETIC. Hacking into someone’s email. Maybe the same person(s) who help scrub Obama’s website every time the PAID-bloggers step in doo-doo.

    Palin is handling it like a class act. What’s even better is there was NOTHING to see there.

    Now someone hack Obamessiah’s Blackberry and get all the REAL marching orders, huh? (just being funny – NOT ENCOURAGING ANYONE TO DO THIS!!)

  17. Uppity Woman, on September 18th, 2008 at 9:13 AM Said:

    I just surfed the net for actual emails that go with that “list” of emails that Sarah supposedly sent and it does not exist. Looks to me like the Kossacks are making up lists of emails she NEVER sent or received. This list contains ludicrous subject lines like “Confidential-ethics”, “Budgetary” subjects, and other would-be governmental business. Funny, I can’t find one SINGLE site that actually has those emails. These people are pigs.

  18. WarriorofG-d, on September 18th, 2008 at 9:17 AM Said:

    I can tell you that I am 58 years of age and I have been a democrat since I was 18 and I have been a very loud speaker against Obama. But, never have it entered in my mind to get into his personal email or do harm to his family. People are allowed to change their minds and yes, I have chosen Country over party, but, when I see little new democrats (definitely not republicans) do hateful things such as this, they need to be taught a lesson. One year is not enough- put the son of a bitch or daughter of a bitch into jail for 5 years. Let them know that the “gift” that our Heavenly G-d gave them in computer learning is not to be used as an evil instrument. I would not like this to be done to Obama or Mccain or Hillary or Palin. This is invading your privacy. I once came to my home and found everything stolen and I felt like I was raped. I am sure Palin feels the same way. These thoughts and files are HERS and only hers to cherish with her family. No wonder looking at her in the terrific interview last night, she has so many evil people trying to hurt her. She is a bit of fresh air and I am sure she will make a hell of a VP.

  19. mcnorman, on September 18th, 2008 at 10:03 AM Said:

    Had Campbell gone to school where I did, she would have lost her pearly whites the moment she back talked. She is a little tiny bully who feels safe because the big MSM protects her snotiness.
    Yes, she sounds exactly like those stupid little girls who have to put up a fight with mom at the mall.

  20. Mark, on September 18th, 2008 at 10:48 AM Said:

    Service used to try and hide this hackers trail wasn’t good.
    Owner of the service says the servers located in Chicago.
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/18/palin_email_investigation/

  21. Uppity Woman, on September 18th, 2008 at 10:55 AM Said:

    Yes I saw that Mark. The hacker is toast. They know who he is already, you can bet. And I’ll bet he’s a kid. I’m not too sure the site that posted those emails is going to have an easy time of it either.

  22. Uppity Woman, on September 18th, 2008 at 10:56 AM Said:

    Beware of “Additional emails” list floating around. I scoured the net and can’t find ONE link to actual emails. All there is is that “list” with ludicrously confidential subject lines. Sounds like a Kossak hit job to me.

  23. Uppity Woman, on September 18th, 2008 at 10:57 AM Said:

    I should really do a post update.

  24. ProudMilitaryMom, on September 18th, 2008 at 11:16 AM Said:

    First thought that popped in my mind was “Wonder how this bot is gonna feel NOW about his leader’s FISA vote???” BWHAHAHA- no warrant needed- bye bye hacker from hell!

  25. mcnorman, on September 18th, 2008 at 11:26 AM Said:

    Hi Uppity…long night. One of my kittys was in the ER last night. No, I don’t have the links because the poster did not tell me where they came from. As I understand it, there are so many emails that were gone through and the jerk that did this put everything out for the other pick and choose what they wanted. You are right, I don’t want to echo any of their BS. I will work on this and try to get a link.

  26. JustMe, on September 18th, 2008 at 11:32 AM Said:

    Oh well it’s not like this whippersnapper did not know what they were doing.
    The part about “Wasilla high” like they had to try different ways of writing it…
    I hope they lock them up 5 yrs and throw away the key.
    First parade their face on MSM which of course FOX will be the only channel to cover any thing on this.

    Campbell Brown is so condescending it is not funny.
    What a bitch

    If my memory serves me well, she has 4-5 kids. Why is she working? her kids will suffer what a bad mother..

    If it was not for women like HRC & SP she would not even be sat in that chair.

  27. Uppity Woman, on September 18th, 2008 at 11:33 AM Said:

    Gee, mcnorman, hope kitty is Ok! I know what a worry that is. Like family, they are!

    I scoured the net looking for links to actual emails and concluded that this is just another Kossack hit. There are no additional emails. Just that phony list, much like the “banned books” list.

  28. Uppity Woman, on September 18th, 2008 at 11:33 AM Said:

    My kitty sends glows to your kitty!

  29. mcnorman, on September 18th, 2008 at 11:42 AM Said:

    Thank you for your kind thoughts. EK is a sweet little feral. I think he will be ok…a mauling that almost took his eye. This happened when I was looking for those emails. Feel free to edit anything that I post.
    I suspect that it is a Kos hit because the stupid little boy stated that there was nothing there. Interesting, that he would state that as he said he was only there to help others upload porn into her email.
    I hope they prosecute the basement dweller to jail. I am so tired of the children playing without supervision.

  30. Robert W., on September 18th, 2008 at 11:55 AM Said:

    Re: Campbell Brown

    She represents everything I detest in a “journalist”. She’s supposed to be a N-E-W-S person which, by definition means that she’s supposed to leave her personal bias at home. But she does not. She’s clearly defending “her guy” at every turn.

    I don’t mind if a journalist has tough questions for ALL politicians. Clearly Ms. Brown predetermines what a person’s voting inclination is before deciding how to treat them.

    P.S. At the end of the clip John Roberts appeared in another one. Remember his “lovely” comments when Sarah Palin was first nominated?!

  31. mcnorman, on September 18th, 2008 at 12:15 PM Said:

    UW and Robert W
    Were either of you able to view the Wikileaks page last night?
    I tried this morning but the page was deleted. Wikileaks site has been closed. Apparently, ICANN has deleted it’s DNS.
    The site is down.
    From another poster comment: However DNS is still working. I am still getting an IP address. The domain registration does not appear to have been cancelled.
    Chicago style politics.

  33. Uppity Woman, on September 18th, 2008 at 12:15 PM Said:

    It’s McGovern all over again. RIght to a tee.

  34. Uppity Woman, on September 18th, 2008 at 12:16 PM Said:

    Well they can bring a site down but the owner still owns the rights to it. So the IP still exists and is owned.

    Typical though.

  35. Uppity Woman, on September 18th, 2008 at 12:17 PM Said:

    The domain wil remain registered to whomever owned it till it expires.

  37. mcnorman, on September 18th, 2008 at 12:36 PM Said:

    Here is a lovely board where some of the basement dwellers gloat.
    http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r21127271-Sarah-Palins-Yahoo-Account-Hacked~start=20

  38. Uppity Woman, on September 18th, 2008 at 12:39 PM Said:

    I hate giving these sites traffic from my site.

  39. mcnorman, on September 18th, 2008 at 12:44 PM Said:

    I understand. You hear about it, and you see some of it play out as in this email theft but you just don’t believe that there are that many roaches out there having a great laugh at someone’s expense. Truly gross.

  40. mcnorman, on September 18th, 2008 at 1:01 PM Said:

    I got a response on the blog from the poster of the email addresses:
    “In the original Gawker story, you can see the “draft letter” subject under the dark gray chat window in the last image.

    I don’t want to provide a link to the actual file so that you’re not indexed on Google as providing access to the aforementioned hot potato, but there is a “7z” (a type of archive) that contains all of the original postings on the forum where this broke.”

  41. mcnorman, on September 18th, 2008 at 1:02 PM Said:

    I am not tech savy so I am not sure about how to view those links.

  42. Uppity Woman, on September 18th, 2008 at 1:04 PM Said:

    Gawker is nothing more than a third person here. No link, no dice!

    mcnorman, put this to bed. I am not going to wase five more minutes on it myself. Believe me if those emails were true, CNN and MSNBC would have them on the screen by now.

  43. mcnorman, on September 18th, 2008 at 1:06 PM Said:

    Yeah…time to go and love my kitty.

  44. Uppity Woman, on September 18th, 2008 at 1:14 PM Said:

    Kiss him on the nose for me.

  45. Cockroaches Abound « Quipster, on September 18th, 2008 at 1:15 PM Said:

    [...] details of how the hack job went down, per Michelle Malkin’s additional post and Uppity Woman.  WELL WORTH THE [...]

  46. Uppity Woman, on September 18th, 2008 at 1:15 PM Said:

    Mine is right behind me on the back of the couch, pushed up against me while I type.

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