China official says hackers affected more than 42,000 websites

By Kay B. Day

China has developed a reputation as a source for hacking attacks, and a government official has told Al Jazeera “hackers tampered with more than 42,000 websites last year.” Perhaps in response to that developing reputation as well as criticism from Internet corporate monolith Google, China said it has shut down the biggest “training center” for hackers, the Black Hawk Safety Net. The operation was shut down in November, but reports didn't surface until February.

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Wired says Palin email hacker may be son of Democratic state representative

The alleged hacker who accessed and distributed messages from Gov. Sarah Palin’s Yahoo email account posted an explanation of how he did it at 4chan. Wired says the story was posted only briefly and the hacker may be the son of a Democratic state representative. In the alleged confessional the hacker said, “[he found] nothing incriminating, nothing that would derail her campaign as I had hoped.”

Commenters at Wired offered a mixed reaction. Some claimed Palin had “official state business” in the emails, although there’s no way to tell that without reading the email. I get emails all the time with old subject lines, sent from one address to another in the mix of accounts I use. Others thought the hacker stooped pretty low.

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