The ongoing investigation into the hacking of Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s Yahoo e-mail account now appears to center on the son of a Democratic state legislator in Tennessee. A federal grand jury convened Tuesday morning in Chattanooga to hear testimony from friends of David Kernell, a 20-year-old economics student at the University of Tennessee whose apartment was raided by the FBI early Sunday morning, but ended their session for the day without issuing an indictment.

Kernell, whose father is Tennessee State Representative Michael Kernell, is the target of widespread speculation in the blogosphere. The attention came after a post appeared on the online chat board, 4chan, describing how it “took seriously 45 mins on wikipedia and google to find the info” needed to access the Alaska governor’s personal e-mail account using Yahoo’s password reset feature. (A Yahoo spokesperson indicated that the company is continually reviewing its security procedures, but had not planned any specific changes yet.)

According to the 4chan message, the author’s curiosity had been piqued by press reports concerning Palin’s alleged use of another, more public, Yahoo account, to conduct state business. After gaining access to the account, the self-described hacker wrote, he had searched without success for incriminating e-mails, and posted the new account password to the board so others could do the same. He soon realized that “if this sh*t ever got to the FBI I was f—ed, I panicked.” The author of the post used the handle “Rubico,” which was tied to a Yahoo e-mail address easily linked to Kernell via Google searches—though given the penchant for pranksterism at 4chan, this was scarcely definitive evidence.

Law enforcement officials did not appear to have taken an overt interest in Kernell as quickly as bloggers had. But after IP logs retained by the proxy service Palin’s hacker had used pointed to the Commons at Knoxville apartment complex where Kernell lives, FBI agents arrived at the student’s residence early Sunday morning to search the premises, breaking up a party in the process.

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