Well, this settles the question, posted in an earlier thread, about whether the culprit was very very smart or very very stupid.
(Unless, of course, this guy is innocent, in which case the real culprit was very very smart.)
In other news, I sure hope everyone who feels compelled to express an opinion about what should happen to this kid now will stop for a moment and consider whether their opinion would be the same if he were the son of a Republican senator and got caught doing the same thing to a Democratic candidate, and to make absolutely sure that their opinion would be the same either way.
Oh I don't know, I think that "suitable punishments for computer criminals" is perfectly on-topic, as long as it's not too infected by boring politics.
I completely agree - the kid should be punished and political persuasion should not come into it whatsoever.
It also shouldn't have mattered if the kid broke into Palin's account or your corner shop owner. The fact is he did so, and put that information out there with malicious intent (posting her login info was seriously bad form).
If he had done so with and then alerted Palin about the security hole, then sure - I'd have a lot more sympathy. Even if he had broken in just to see if he could do it, then left it at that - that might have been acceptable, but the way he handled (I thought) was wrong.
I know that legally, some crimes are more severe when perpetrated against a government employee. You'll get a much steeper penalty for punching an employee at City Hall than you would for doing the same at Burger King.
I'm for punishing the kid just the same as if he had stolen checks and started writing checks against somebody's account.
My concern is that this will be a special case -- either giving the kid more punishment than normal or less punishment. Just guessing, I'm thinking a white-collar crime that involved no use of violence? 6 months to 2 years maybe?
Now is there an additional crime for political espionage in the course of trying to throw an election? I believe so, or at least that there should be. I think if you commit a felony in the process of trying to sway political opinion that should pump up the punishment some. As an example I use the Watergate burglars, who were anything but run-of-the-mill crooks (and got punished more than first time burglars as well, if I remember correctly)
Crime with deliberate political implications, whether violent or not, should be treated more harshly. Perhaps this kid didn't break into Palin's account to sway public opinion. I don't know enough about the case to determine that.
(Unless, of course, this guy is innocent, in which case the real culprit was very very smart.)
In other news, I sure hope everyone who feels compelled to express an opinion about what should happen to this kid now will stop for a moment and consider whether their opinion would be the same if he were the son of a Republican senator and got caught doing the same thing to a Democratic candidate, and to make absolutely sure that their opinion would be the same either way.