Am i handsome??
WASHINGTON - A TENNESSEE university student has been indicted for hacking into a personal email account of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the running mate of Republican presidential candidate John McCain.
David Kernell, 20, turned himself in to the authorities in Tennessee after he was indicted by a federal grand jury and was to be arraigned before a magistrate, the Justice Department said in a statement.
It said Kernell was charged in a single-count indictment with gaining 'unauthorised access to Gov. Palin's personal e-mail account by allegedly resetting the account password' around September 16.
'Kernell allegedly read the contents of the account and made screenshots of the email directory, email content and other personal information.
'According to the indictment, Kernell posted screenshots of the emails and other personal information to a public website,' the Justice Department added.
Kernell's father is Mike Kernell, a Democratic state representative from Memphis, Tennessee. The elder Kernell has said he was unaware of the actions of his son, a student at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.
The McCain campaign denounced the attack on Mrs Palin's private email as a 'shocking invasion of the governor's privacy'.
If convicted, Kernell faces up to five years in prison, a US$250,000 (S$366,955) fine and a three-year term of supervised release.
Authorities did not immediately set a trial date. -- AFP















GPS tracking for ERP good but address privacy issues

THE Land Transport Authority (LTA) recently clarified its proposal to replace Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) gantries with a system based on global positioning system (GPS) technology ('New ERP 'not based on time spent on road''; ST, Feb 9).

The idea is to introduce a fairer system that charges road users according to distance travelled along congested roads (that is, their contribution to traffic congestion). While such a system is potentially a fairer implementation of ERP, such technology has more far-reaching implications.
Doing away with the gantry system means the LTA will have the flexibility to levy ERP fees on any road that becomes congested. With sufficient refinement, such technology could be extended to catch people who speed, trespass, stop or park illegally.


The ability to track individual vehicles could also be used to assist the authorities in criminal investigations. Vehicles suspected of use in criminal activities could be tracked and a record of their movements used as evidence. This could deter potential criminals and reduce, in particular, the number of vehicle-smuggling and theft-related offences.
Road usage could be monitored to identify and predict congested roads islandwide. This could assist in traffic light control, urban planning and development.
Such studies could improve our understanding of vehicle usage and provide a more rational basis for regulations governing certificates of entitlement (COEs) and vehicle numbers.
GPS systems have proven beneficial for companies that want to track the movement of their delivery and passenger vehicles (for example, taxis) so as to provide security features, navigational assistance and booking services. Making this mandatory for all vehicles means motorists in general could benefit from similar software applications - whether they want to or not.


Apart from cost issues, which are likely to be significant, there are serious privacy issues that need to be considered since individuals' vehicles could be tracked and logged. This is set against the continued debate on the effectiveness of the ERP system.
The LTA needs to address such concerns and provide comprehensive information on the intended use and proposed implementation of the GPS system.



Google Earth threatens national security: Army chief He suggested that the matter should be handled jointly with other countries Monday, April 03,


NEW DELHI: Chief of the Indian army General J.J. Singh today said that high-resolution images of strategic defence facilities on Google Earth posed danger to national security and the matter would have to be tackled jointly with other countries.
Replying to a question on the images being easily accessible on Google Earth, he said, "To some extent it is dangerous to national security." He said the images could give "an advantage" to parties that did not have their own defence satellites.
"It is equally dangerous to all countries and will have to be jointly tackled by all countries," General Singh added.
He was speaking at the sidelines of a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) seminar on the theme "Communications in the Tactical Battle Area". Gen. Singh and defence minister Pranab Mukherjee addressed the seminar.
Google Earth has put up on its website high-resolution satellite images of strategically sensitive air bases in northern India. Strategic installations of other countries, including Pakistan and the US, are similarly available on the site.
Last year, President APJ Abdul Kalam had also expressed serious concerns over the easily available images of defence sites on Google Earth.