Group responsible for Church of Scientology hack earlier this year claiming responsibility

September 18, 2008—Sources report that a group of hackers calling themselves “Anonymous” announced recently that they have hacked into Gov. and Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s Yahoo! email account. 

Files posted for download included five screenshots, an address book, and two digital family photos.  One of these screenshots shows Palin and Lt. Gov. Sean Parnel, while another displays text of a message to Gov. Palin from Amy McCorkell, whom Palin appointed to Governor’s Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse in October of 2007.

Security expert Adam O’Donnell told ComputerWorld.com that for public figures like Palin to use private email accounts was “incredibly dangerous.”

“There’s a reason why you have an official account. It’s so you can apply proper security management to the account.” O’Donnell added.

Palin has been criticized recently for her use of private email accounts to conduct state business.