- #1
rootX
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Is Sarah Palin's Inbox Causing Controversy?
- Thread starter rootX
- Start date
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Discussion Overview
The discussion revolves around the controversy surrounding Sarah Palin's use of a personal Yahoo email account for government communications, particularly in light of a hacking incident that exposed her inbox content. Participants explore the implications of this situation, including legal and ethical considerations, as well as security concerns related to personal information.
Discussion Character
- Debate/contested
- Technical explanation
- Conceptual clarification
Main Points Raised
- Some participants note that Palin's use of a personal email account for official communications raises questions about transparency and legality.
- Others mention that the hacking incident involved activists gaining access to her email and sharing the contents with Wikileaks, which has since gone offline.
- A participant highlights that while technically possible to meet legal requirements by printing emails from a personal account, this complicates the process and suggests forwarding emails to a business account as a more efficient method.
- Concerns are raised about the security of personal information, with anecdotes shared about how easily accounts can be accessed using personal details.
- Some participants express skepticism about Palin's understanding of security protocols, linking it to broader concerns about her qualifications in various areas.
- The McCain campaign's response to the hacking is mentioned, emphasizing their view of the incident as a violation of privacy and law.
Areas of Agreement / Disagreement
Participants express a range of views, with some agreeing on the ethical implications of using personal email for government business, while others debate the adequacy of security measures and the response from authorities. No consensus is reached on the legality or implications of the actions taken by Palin or the hackers.
Contextual Notes
Participants discuss the potential legal ramifications of using personal email for government communications, but there are unresolved questions about the specific laws and regulations that apply. The discussion also touches on the reliability of security measures and the implications of personal information being used to access accounts.
- #2
Evo
Staff Emeritus
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She used a yahoo e-mail account.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080918/ap_on_el_pr/palin_hacked;_ylt=AlkJVy4aZNNGSWkbNsB5ukZh24cA
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- #3
rootX
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Evo said:
Wikileaks has all her inbox content.
I didn't know that she isn't suppose to use her personal inbox for government communications ...
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- #4
- 19,911
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rootX said:
wikileaks is currently offline
- #5
rootX
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- #6
BobG
Science Advisor
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rootX said:
That's correct. Official communications one makes as a part of one's job belong to the employer. That's true for government officials and private employees (in other words, you, too, can get in trouble with your employer if you use your personal e-mail to conduct company business).
Technically, she (or any other employee) could probably meet the legal requirements by printing and filing copies of the e-mails from her personal e-mail account, but that's tossing a wrench into what should be an automated, almost paperless system.
A more efficient method of meeting the requirements would be to forward the e-mails to your business e-mail address. That would meet the legal requirements and avoid throwing a wrench into the system.
The best method is to use your business e-mail for business and your personal e-mail for personal mail. Since a lot of folks will both of your e-mails in their contacts list, the only thing you can do to people who send stuff to the wrong address is to remind them of your business address. You can't stop the problem completely. (Especially from the people who send their stuff to every e-mail they have for you, just in case.)
If the e-mails contain proprietary information (more for private companies than government), then you definitely want to remind the person to use your business e-mail. They can get into trouble for distributing proprietary info to the wrong destination even if you can't (presumably, a company's e-mail would be harder to hack than Yahoo, but that's not necessarily true).
If there's a pattern to the e-mails, then you can get a whole new situation. If it looks like the governor is using the e-mail to hide official business from government officials, then you're going to have an investigation. Usually a person tries to hide business e-mails from their employer because they're doing something unethical or illegal.
- #7
LowlyPion
Homework Helper
- 3,127
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Evo said:
Yahoo_News said:
You can bet if the McCain Campaign had any Obama emails, they would be splashing them about.
Good for the AP not cooperating. The Secret Service is out of line expecting to plug the bottle.
As to appropriate authorities ... What exactly is the charge?
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- #8
edward
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This may cast doubts on Palin's knowledge of security.
There was an occasion when I needed to get into my son's Verizon account. His company had given him a new blackberry several months previously, so he gave his old phone and prepaid account to my wife.
There was a problem because he could not remember the password to the old phone. He was busy so I went to the account online, but was stopped by the password.
I clicked on "forgot Password" a screen popped up with two security questions. One was mothers maiden name. Hey that is my wife. The next was dogs name. LOL I trained that mutt. With that information I changed the password to one that was easy for my wife to remember.
After that I made a bet that with my daughter in law that I could get access her Yahoo account. It was simple. I had her e-mail address, dogs name and son's middle name were the security questions.
If one knows a bit of personal information about a someone it is fairly easy to access an account. And a lot of companies use simple family related security questions because people tend to forget them. A bit of trial and error and a hacker is in.
There was an occasion when I needed to get into my son's Verizon account. His company had given him a new blackberry several months previously, so he gave his old phone and prepaid account to my wife.
There was a problem because he could not remember the password to the old phone. He was busy so I went to the account online, but was stopped by the password.
I clicked on "forgot Password" a screen popped up with two security questions. One was mothers maiden name. Hey that is my wife. The next was dogs name. LOL I trained that mutt. With that information I changed the password to one that was easy for my wife to remember.
After that I made a bet that with my daughter in law that I could get access her Yahoo account. It was simple. I had her e-mail address, dogs name and son's middle name were the security questions.
If one knows a bit of personal information about a someone it is fairly easy to access an account. And a lot of companies use simple family related security questions because people tend to forget them. A bit of trial and error and a hacker is in.
- #9
LowlyPion
Homework Helper
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edward said:
Looking at the other areas of her expertise, Foreign Policy (I can see Russia) to Energy (dril, drill, drill), I guess knowing what to do with "You've got mail" qualifies her as an IT guru.
Couple that with John McCain's positions on banking ("Mr. Keating on line 3 for you Senator") to the economy (Who needs Glass Steagall?) and the claim that McCain contributed to bringing about the Blackberry, looks like the McCain Palin team offers the opportunity to bring multiple areas of incompetence into the Executive offices.
- #10
TheStatutoryApe
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edward said:
This is why I never use real info for any of those questions. I just make it up and generally use the same questions and answers so as to not forget.
Edit:
By the way does anything in therestate anything about the actual content of her e-mails? Maybe they were about campaigns and such but were just idle chat and nothing of actual importance.
- #11
BobG
Science Advisor
- 364
- 87
edward said:
TheStatutoryApe said:
Supposedly, there was no damaging info. (Hacking Sarah Palin
Still, using the typical challenge questions are just setting a person up to be hacked - especially a public person that lots of people know a lot about.
Also interesting:
Even with a VP that "invented the internet", Bill Clinton didn't use it? (Gore, Hillary Clinton, Romney, and Obama almost never stop using their Blackberrys).