Hackers broke into the Yahoo! e-mail account that Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin used for official business as Alaska's governor, revealing as evidence a few inconsequential personal messages that she has received since John McCain selected her as his running mate.
"This is a shocking invasion of the governor's privacy and a violation of law. The matter has been turned over to the appropriate authorities and we hope that anyone in possession of these e-mails will destroy them," the McCain campaign said.
The disclosure Wednesday raises new questions about the propriety of the Palin administration's use of nongovernment e-mail accounts to conduct state business. The practice was revealed months ago -- prior to Palin's selection as a vice presidential candidate -- after political critics obtained internal e-mails documenting the practice by some aides.
Palin herself used "gov.sarah" in one of her e-mail addresses, but the hackers targeted her "gov.palin" account. It wasn't clear how hackers broke into the account, but it would have been possible to trick the service into revealing her password knowing personal details about Palin. A hacker also might have sent a forged e-mail to her tricking her into revealing her own password.
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