Hacking into someone else’s e-mail is bad.  This is different than overlooking someone’s inbox because they mistakenly left it up on your computer.  Hacking into someone’s personal correspondence is an invasion of privacy and something that is premeditated.  The underlying concern is what kind of retribution will the victim be able to enforce.  Or will a judge be able to intervene on what is considered laissez-faire, sacred Internet ground. 

The Internet has been a domain of free space, or non-government enforced so to speak.  Recently, a Tennessee college student, David Kernell, hacked into a potential Vice President’s e-mail account.  He claimed that he forgot his Gmail password for Governor Palin’s e-mail account; set up a new password; and started posting her e-mails on websites.  This might be time for the Courts to step in and make an example out of him and possibly a landmark decision to govern future cases by.  We are all in favor of finally having some punishment for hackers and those causing harm, such as spyware and viruses. 

If convicted, this student will receive a maximum of 5 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and a 3-year term of supervised release.  However, keep in mind this case is being brought by the Governor’s party as an “invasion of the Governor’s privacy and a violation of the law.”  This means that this case may only apply to future political figures and not necessarily anybody else.  We see no reason why an unknown person’s privacy is any less important than a public figure’s identity.  Hopefully, the courts will realize this to which will protect the Internet for everybody.  Well, we are not coming off of our soapbox and hopefully the courts will soon go on theirs.  We will find out soon enough when the Court rules its decision in December.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 10th, 2008 at 3:19 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.