David Kernell a 20-year old economics major at the University of Knoxville, allegedly hacked into, then copied and posted all the Alaska Governor's Yahoo email and her private contact information online for all to see on September 16.
The email hacking caused a whirlwind of attention as the postings revealed that Sarah Palin was sometimes using her personal email account to conduct some official government business which is a violation of the public record rules.
The FBI began investigating Kernell who used the online alias of "rubico" immediately after the hack. According to the FBI report Kernell was able to guess at Palin's password by gathering information online and guessing her password and then was able to reset the password to "popcorn" which allowed him to access the Republican Governor's email freely.
His father, Mike Kernell, the government operations chairman of the Tennessee state legislature, has denied any involvement in the hacking.