FBI on the trail of hackers after Palin emails made public

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.

Information from the account, including her emails, digital photos and online address book, was posted on the internet on Tuesday, after an unidentified individual guessed the password to the Alaska governor's personal email account.

Screenshots and information were made available on the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, which defended its decision saying the hack proved Palin was violating rules on keeping public records by sending official emails through her private Yahoo account. "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."