Reports of the US vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin’s personal email being hacked and posted on the Internet has highlighted the increasing need for online security.

The group known as ‘Anonymous’, broke into Palin’s Yahoo account through Yahoo’s password recovery system, reports Wired. Rick Davis, McCain-Palin campaign manager expressed shock on the invasion of the Governor’s privacy and has pointed the act as the violation of law. He stated, ‘The matter has been turned over to the appropriate authorities and we hope that anyone in possession of these e-mails will destroy them. We will have no further comment.’ FBE spokesman, Brian Hale said that the FBI is aware of the alleged hacking incident and is working with United States Secret Service on the matter.

Screenshots of e-mail messages and photos belonging to the Alaska Governor have been published by WikiLeaks. This has also brought Palin under scanner for using private e-mail accounts to conduct state business.

The Earth Times states that an estimated 21 million passwords are stolen every year. The common people who do not enjoy the celebrity status are likely to become victim of such act by some known person. Somebody you are acquainted with, like friends, neighbours, fellow employees, family members or significant others account for 47% of identity theft. The hacker may guess the easy and obvious answer to one’s password recovery question, or may also use hacking software. The threat highlights the need for the creation of stronger passwords using a combination of uppercase, lowercase, numbers and symbols. X

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