Palin's email account hacked

If Sarah Palin thought the spotlight was glaring for the past 2 1/2 weeks, it just got a bit more intense.

Hackers have broken into Palin's Yahoo email account and posted many of the messages and email addresses of Palin's family and friends to other sites across the Internet.

Phone numbers were also discovered in the ransacking of Palin's email, including a cell phone number for Palin's daughter Bristol. According to visitors to the Gawker.com website, calling the number only resulted in a voicemail.

Many people on Gawker seemed to cheer the hackers on and were disappointed that a "white knight" -- online lingo for good Samaritan -- appeared to have reset the password, blocking more hackers from gaining access to her email account.

McCain response

McCain campaign manager Rick Davis strongly condemned the action.

"This is a shocking invasion of the governor's privacy and a violation of law," Davis said. "The matter has been turned over to the appropriate authorities, and we hope that anyone in possession of these e-mails will destroy them."

Not complying

Visitors to Gawker seemed to thumbing their online nose at Davis.

"Here are the screenshots of the emails saved before the account went dark, along with the contact list," a blogger wrote. "It's newsworthy and we will not be taking it down!"

Play-by-play

The site also links to another web location that provides a play-by-play account of the hacking. The blogger -- apparently soon after the hack -- wrote, "It looks legit!" The blogger noted that there were emails addressed to Ivy Frye, a Palin aide who had been mentioned in news articles as having conferred with Palin about how to hide her correspondence from public scrutiny.

Secret Service

Although the participants in the hack appear to be treating the break-in like sport, officials are not. The Associated Press was contacted by the Secret Service for copies of the leaked emails. Although the AP reports it did not comply with the request, the emails are not difficult to find.

Palin has been criticized for using personal email in conducting government business. She had already been the focus of one Alaskan who had submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for more than 1,100 emails to and from her personal account.

The McCain campaign had no further comment.