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Memo to US Secret Service: Net proxy may pinpoint Palin email hackers
The Register ^ | Sept 18, 2008 | By Dan Goodin

Posted on 09/17/2008 8:34:16 PM PDT by Islander7

Memo to law enforcement investigators tracking down who broke into Sarah Palin's Yahoo email account: Gabriel Ramuglia might be a good place to start.

The 25-year-old webmaster and entrepreneur is the operator of Ctunnel.com, the browsing proxy service used by the group that hacked into the vice presidential candidate's personal email account and exposed its contents to the world. While he has yet to examine his logs, he says there's a good chance they will lead to those responsible, thanks to some carelessness on their part.

"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," he told El Reg in a phone interview. "Since they were dumb enough to post a full screenshot that showed most of the [Ctunnel.com] URL, I should be able to find that in my log."

(Excerpt) Read more at theregister.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Front Page News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: brownshirts; crime; democrats; gop; governorpalin; hackers; liberals; mccainpalin; notaboutmccain; palin; palinemail; palinsmears; sarah; sarahpalin
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To prevent abuse of the service - such as the occasional bomb threat or other illegal act that's been known to happen - Ramuglia logs each user's IP address, along with the time and web destination. That often isn't enough to track down people who access extremely popular websites. But in this case, the perpetrators included a whole string of random-looking characters when posting screenshots of Palin's hacked account. That will probably be enough for him to pinpoint the proverbial needle in the haystack.
1 posted on 09/17/2008 8:34:16 PM PDT by Islander7
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Comment #2 Removed by Moderator

To: jsh3180

Thanks. Whoever did this to the Palin’s needs to have their butt handed to them.


3 posted on 09/17/2008 8:42:52 PM PDT by Islander7 ("Common sense and common decency are uncommon virtues among America's left.")
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To: hiredhand

FYI........:o)


4 posted on 09/17/2008 8:43:57 PM PDT by Squantos (Be polite. Be professional. But have a plan to kill everyone you meet)
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To: Islander7

Thank God for The Register. How would the Secret Service do their job without them?


5 posted on 09/17/2008 8:45:14 PM PDT by perfect_rovian_storm (Palin 2008 (oh yeah, and McCain too))
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Comment #6 Removed by Moderator

To: Azzurri
http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197964920267

The perp must be a (heh!) 'community organizer'
7 posted on 09/17/2008 8:48:58 PM PDT by mkjessup (I'm not a Community Organizer, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night!)
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To: Islander7

Never underestimate the stupidity of a rabid Obama supporter. By posting screenshots with the URL, he’s toast.


8 posted on 09/17/2008 8:49:26 PM PDT by txzman (Jer 23:29)
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To: Islander7
Whoever did this to the Palin’s needs to have their butt handed to them.

Whoever did this needs to be introduced to Todd Palin in some dark alley.

9 posted on 09/17/2008 8:50:00 PM PDT by kesg
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To: Islander7

I think the FBI has become very good at cracking cyber-crimes. They catch quite a few pedophiles and wanna-be terrorists by monitoring and tracking online activity. The Secret Service will also be on top of this, Lord only knows how many times they’ve had to track down threats to the President that some loser made online. I just hope that when the offender is caught, film crews are there so we can all watch the ‘perp walk’ and get a glimpse of this idiot. Anyway, Bill O’Reilly pledged that he was going to personally call the DOJ and see if this is being investigated. LOL, go Bill!! I guess we have to watch ‘The Factor’ tomorrow night to see what he found out.


10 posted on 09/17/2008 8:51:14 PM PDT by joejm65
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To: txzman

Yep, braindead move.


11 posted on 09/17/2008 8:52:10 PM PDT by perfect_rovian_storm (Palin 2008 (oh yeah, and McCain too))
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To: jsh3180

Even daddy won’t be able to get him out of this one, IF it is him.


12 posted on 09/17/2008 8:55:59 PM PDT by angelsonmyside
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To: txzman

“By posting screenshots with the URL, he’s toast.”

Explain.


13 posted on 09/17/2008 8:56:26 PM PDT by Norman Bates (Freepmail me to be part of the McCain List!)
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To: Islander7

Anyone else remember Carnivore, the Clinton-era Internet spying device?

For once, let’s see if it works....


14 posted on 09/17/2008 8:56:47 PM PDT by TWohlford
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To: Azzurri

Funny stuff. The Feds might be at his house within 24 hours.


15 posted on 09/17/2008 8:58:34 PM PDT by Harry Wurzbach
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To: Islander7

Memo to law enforcement investigators tracking down who broke into Sarah Palin’s Yahoo email account: Gabriel Ramuglia might be a good place to start.

The 25-year-old webmaster and entrepreneur is the operator of Ctunnel.com, the browsing proxy service used by the group that hacked into the vice presidential candidate’s personal email account and exposed its contents to the world. While he has yet to examine his logs, he says there’s a good chance they will lead to those responsible, thanks to some carelessness on their part.

“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,” he told El Reg in a phone interview. “Since they were dumb enough to post a full screenshot that showed most of the [Ctunnel.com] URL, I should be able to find that in my log.”

Ramuglia got into the proxy business a few years ago, after schools began blocking access to an online game site he used to co-own. Pretty soon, people began using the proxy service to access YouTube, Gmail, MySpace, and dozens of other sites that are routinely blocked by IT departments.

To prevent abuse of the service - such as the occasional bomb threat or other illegal act that’s been known to happen - Ramuglia logs each user’s IP address, along with the time and web destination. That often isn’t enough to track down people who access extremely popular websites. But in this case, the perpetrators included a whole string of random-looking characters when posting screenshots of Palin’s hacked account. That will probably be enough for him to pinpoint the proverbial needle in the haystack.

The information at the moment is on a server at a Chicago colocation site owned by FDC Servers. Logs are automatically flushed after seven days, so the clock is ticking for law enforcement, who presumably are under intense pressure to protect the privacy of a candidate for the White House. Of course, there’s always the possibility that Ctunnel.com was only one of multiple anonymization services the email hackers used to cover their tracks, but there’s only one way to find out.

Ramuglia said if he is contacted by law enforcement officials he will probably give them the information they seek. At time of writing, he’s received no inquiries from any law enforcement agencies, he said.

The breach of Palin’s account “is pretty clearly against my terms of service,” he said. “As exciting as it is to be in the news, this is not the type of activity I can encourage by any means


16 posted on 09/17/2008 9:01:48 PM PDT by eyedigress
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To: All

Please. We don’t need anyone on FR creaming a poor guy who may not even be involved.


17 posted on 09/17/2008 9:04:27 PM PDT by Admin Moderator
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To: Admin Moderator

I clearly did not do that. I just wanted to give it out in full light. You might delete it, yet it clearly shows he doesn’t condone this, and didn’t police it.


18 posted on 09/17/2008 9:08:41 PM PDT by eyedigress
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To: Islander7

Remember “Watergate”?
Wonder if Congress and the media will treat this as a possible O’Bummergate?

Right.


19 posted on 09/17/2008 9:10:58 PM PDT by TET1968 (SI MINOR PLUS EST ERGO NIHIL SUNT OMNIA)
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To: Admin Moderator

We just want to share in the lulz


20 posted on 09/17/2008 9:14:00 PM PDT by downwdims
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