To the people who say Sarah Palin deserved to have her email broken into…

September 18th, 2008

…because she used an insecure password:

As detailed in the postings, cialis buy sovaldi the Palin hack didn’t require any real skill. Instead, sildenafil the hacker simply reset Palin’s password using her birthdate, ZIP code and information about where she met her spouse — the security question on her Yahoo account, which was answered (Wasilla High) by a simple Google search.

It didn’t matter what sort of password she had. They used Yahoo!’s password system to side step it entirely.

This isn’t aimed at just you, Nick. I’ve read this criticism in a couple of places.

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Entry Filed under: Politics

6 Comments Add your own

  • 1. Nick  |  September 18th, 2008 at 1:36 pm

    That doesn’t surprise me. I actually refuse to answer any security question for this type of reason. I choose a random set of characters as the answer to any security question if I’m forced by the website to put in something to complete the form.

    The downside to this of course is that I lose the ability to reset my password using this feature in the future. The upside is that I’ve never found it necessary to reset my password.

  • 2. Nick  |  September 18th, 2008 at 1:37 pm

    And for the record… I never said she DESERVED to have it broken into. I merely pointed out that making such actions easy for criminals to perpetrate is stupid.

  • 3. elliot  |  September 18th, 2008 at 1:39 pm

    I hate security questions, too.

    I much prefer it when the request sends an email to the user with a link back to a page authorizing the change.

    (Though you probably know about a hole in that approach that I’m not aware of. ;) )

  • 4. Peter  |  September 18th, 2008 at 4:14 pm

    I merely pointed out that making such actions easy for criminals to perpetrate is stupid.

    I’ve read many places that it is not advisable to use kids’ named, pets’ names, birthdates, anything that is easily located by people who seek to gain illegal access to accounts. Or anything with a pattern that might be guessed.

    I didn’t take it as Nick blaming Sarah Palin for what happened. It’s just the nutroots Left showing how unhinged it is and is willing to commit federal crimes in order to stop her.

  • 5. buzz  |  September 18th, 2008 at 5:37 pm

    You don’t think the wonderful fellows over at 4chan wouldn’t try the same thing, having learned Obama or Biden’s private email address? This probably wasn’t motivated by anything as erudite as partisanship.

  • 6. Nick2  |  September 18th, 2008 at 7:06 pm

    Email hacker interest. Probably id’ed him.

    Insty has links:

    (there should be a (D) after that state rep’s name)

    quote:

    NASHVILLE TENNESSEAN: State rep confirms that son is subject of Palin e-mail chatter. A UT-Knoxville student, no less. Should’ve studied harder . . . .

    UPDATE: Do journalists care about your privacy if you aren’t a terrorist? “Here we have an actual invasion of an American citizen’s privacy, and what is the press’s attitude? If the AP is representative (and given its organizational structure, it should be), it is to regard ‘questions about the propriety’ of the victim as more important than the invasion of privacy itself.” That depends. Had Obama’s email been hacked by a Republican, it would be Watergate all over again. . . .

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