'FBI on the trail of Palin hackers'

"Information from private account posted online, including messages, digital photos and address book." Full Guardian story here.

FBI officials and secret service investigators were trying yesterday to track down hackers who broke into an email account belonging to US vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. . . .

"Governor Palin has come under criticism for using private email accounts to conduct government business and in the process avoid transparency laws," the website said. "The list of correspondence, together with the account name, appears to reinforce the criticism." . . .

The use of non-government email services to conduct official business has been criticised in the past. Official government communications are required to be preserved under federal law. Without using official communications channels, it remains unclear whether emails from private accounts are being correctly kept.

Last year the issue came to the fore after it emerged that the Bush administration had been using private accounts to conduct White House business.

A number of senior Bush advisers, including former political strategist Karl Rove, were discovered to have been using private accounts. Documents lost as a result included email conversations about the controversial dismissal of a number of United States attorneys. . . .