David Kernell, the 20-year-old University of Tennessee student indicted for allegedly accessing Governer Palin’s email illegally, has been given a bit more time to enjoy fresh air before things potentially heat up. The son of Tennessee state Rep. Mike Kernell will not stand trial May 2009 when he is now scheduled to face one count of accessing a computer without authorization, a crime that carries up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. The reason for the delay according to a filing from the U.S. Attorney and the Department of Justice:

Because of the nature of this case, significant forensic evaluation is required [and] the parties agree that … an extension should be granted to allow counsel the reasonable time necessary for effective preparation.

Kernell and his lawyers are hardly upset by the judge’s decision to delay the trial of course, as it will give them plenty more time to attempt to have the case thrown out. Unlikely as it may seem, crazier things have happened. Barring some extraordinary legal eagling, the Kernall trial will begin on May 19, 2009.

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Sorry for straying from our regular content, but we felt compelled to remind readers that today is November 4. The official Bold launch is hardly the only interesting news – today also happens to be the day we will elect our 44th President. If you are registered to do so, please, do us and yourself a favor. Take a break at some point today, head down to the polls and vote. Obama/Biden, McCain/Palin, BG/Jibi, whatever. Just vote. This election will already go down in history for a variety of reasons and it will likely be the most important election of our lifetime. Do your part. If making history isn’t enough incentive, hit the jump and listen to our friends over at Cornell University. They want you to vote so badly, well, you’ll see.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming…

The saga continues. David Kernell, University of Tennessee student and son of Tennessee Democratic state representative Mike Kernell, has now been indicted by a grand jury in Knoxville Tennessee. What started as a prank that Kernell laughingly bragged about in an online forum has now become a nightmare that may land the 20-year-old in prison. Kernell, as you may recall, allegedly used Yahoo’s password reset mechanism to change the password for one of Governor Palin’s email accounts and then posted the new password on 4chan.org along with screen shots of her email. The FBI conducted an investigation with the help of ISP Parlov Media, cTunnel webmaster Gabriel Ramuglia and others that quickly lead them to Kernell, who reportedly fled the scene during an initial FBI raid of his on-campus residence. Earlier today, Kernell willingly turned himself in to the FBI and is scheduled to be arraigned before the day is through. It was initially believed that the culprit of the Palin email invasion would likely face a misdemeanor charge but the situation is much more serious in fact. If convicted, Kernell faces up to five years in prison and a fine to the tune of $250,000.

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Oh man… This just keeps getting better and better. Last week we told you about the recent invasion into an email account belonging to Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. At the time, it was thought that a group of hackers known as Anonymous sloppily battled their way into Palin’s Yahoo account, snapped some screen shots and stole a handful of family photos. Well people, the plot thickens. At around midnight Sunday evening, the FBI raided a party being held in the on-campus residence of University of Tennessee student David Kernell who has been implicated in the Palin email scandal. According to witnesses, Kernell reportedly fled the scene when agents arrived but that of course didn’t stop them from photographing his residence and collecting evidence. Kernell and his three roommates have been subpoenaed to appear in court in Chattanooga later this week, though no formal charges have been filed. So what, you might ask, is so interesting about David Kernell? It just so happens that he is the son of Mike Kernell – Tennessee’s Democratic state representative.

What lead the FBI to Kernell? Firstly, no one “hacked” Palin’s account. The intruder used Palin’s birthdate, zip code and other publicly available information to reset the password on her Yahoo account to “popcorn”. He or she then posted the password along with screen shots to a public forum where others used the information to access Palin’s account as well. The user name of the person who originally posted this information, “rubico”, also happens to be included in a yahoo email address used by David Kernell. In addition (and as suggested by San Fransisco blogger Dan Goodin), the proxy URL found in screen shots of Palin’s email account was eventually traced to an IP belonging to Pavlov Media, the ISP that provides internet access to the dormitory in which Kernell resides. It is likely, though not disclosed at this point, that the FBI worked with Pavlov Media to further trace the attack.

If Kernell is charged, it will likely be with a misdemeanor and he will face little or no time in prison.

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Oops. You would think that the group of hackers who recently dug into one of Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s email accounts was smart enough to cover its trail. Unfortunately for them, it looks like you would be wrong. By now you must have read the hacker group known as Anonymous recently found its way into one of Palin’s email accounts and released a variety of screen shots, family photos and Palin’s entire contact list. As it turns out, Anonymous may have shot itself in the foot in the process. A quick glance at the screen shot above reveals that the hackers included a large portion of the proxy URL along the bottom. While this means nothing to most people, it will likely mean game over for Anonymous or at least one of the team members. The hackers used the proxy service Ctunnel.com to mask their IP from anyone who might try to explore Yahoo logs. By displaying most of the proxy URL in the screen shots it published however, Anonymous left themselves wide open to Ctunnel.com owner Gabriel Ramuglia who will likely be called upon to assist in the investigation (in fact he has probably already been contacted).

Usually, this sort of thing would be hard to track down because it’s Yahoo email, and a lot of people use my service for that. Since they were dumb enough to post a full screen shot that showed most of the [Ctunnel.com] URL, I should be able to find that in my log.

Unless Anonymous pulled this stunt off from a coffee shop, or from McDonald’s using a Zune, at least one of the team members could be in a world of hurt pretty soon.

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