Authorities in the United States are investigating whether Mitt Romney’s private e-mail account was hacked after the website Gawker reported that a hacker had gained access to the Hotmail account.
Gawker reported that an anonymous hacker had signed into the Republican presidential candidate’s personal e-mail by guessing the answer to a security question about Mr Romney’s favourite pet. The hacker claimed that he had changed Mr Romney’s password and also compromised Mr Romney’s account on DropBox, a file-sharing service.
The claims come a day after The Wall Street Journal revealed that Mr Romney used his personal e-mail to communicate with his staff when he was Governor of Massachussetts.
The newspaper claimed that after he left office, Mr Romney purchased 17 computer hard drives containing his e-mails, to ensure their destruction.
Mr Romney’s campaign spokeswoman Gail Gitcho said in a statement: “The proper authorities are investigating this crime.” She declined to confirm whether the hacked e-mail account was Mr Romney’s Hotmail account, if he was still using it, or what sort of data may have been compromised.
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In 2008, when then vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin was on the Republican ticket with the White House hopeful John McCain, her private account was hacked, and her personal e-mails, photographs, and contact list were posted online.
A Tennessee college student was arrested and sentenced to one year in jail for that incident.