4chan /b/ in the spotlight over Palin email hacking

As we covered earlier, Sarah Palin’s email account on Yahoo has been hacked, and screenshots of her email, and private family photos published online.

The group taking responsibility is the infamous “Anonymous,” (the name is a label more than a group, applied to users acting towards a similar objective), organized primarily on the 4chan /b/ message board.

The following appeared on the 4chan /b/ message board this afternoon. It may simply be a /b/tard having some fun, but it might not be either

Hello Members of 4Chan.org. The FBI in conjunction with Secret Service and DOJ is requesting records of IP and posting information from the administrators of this site. We are offering a limited time offer of limited immunity to those who confess to the recent hacking of Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s Yahoo email account. Those who step forward with evidence will be treated leniently, while the full force of law will be applied to those captured at a later date.

You may turn yourself in via report to The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) [ http://www.ic3.gov/] or you may call your local FBI office or call (202) 278-2000 and ask to be directed to Special Agent Henry Stewart at Bureau HQ in Washington, DC.

The contact details are correct, although the name given has also been used in spam emails before, so we can’t confirm if there is indeed a Special Agent Henry Stewart.

Either way, the McCain-Palin camp is furious over the hacking, and we know from news reports that an investigation involving the FBI and Secret Service has definitely underway, and that puts the spotlight directly on /b/.

Could the /b/ fun now be over? 4chan has survived other incidents, including terrorist threats and other posts that led to the arrest of people planning homicidal rampages. The lawyers from Scientology couldn’t bring the site down, but hacking the email account of the possible next Vice President of the United States takes matters to whole new levels. 4chan just hit the political radar big time, and no one knows for sure what will follow.

Update: Michaelle Malkin has the details on how the hack to place, and what followed. Looks like a lone individual, with /b/ as the conduit for the information, so certainly less heat on 4chan for now. However the point still remains: 4chan is on the Republicans radar, and in the result goes there way in November, don’t think they’re going to forget the incident.