David Kernell, 20, turned himself in this week, he faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 (£146,000) fine if he is found guilty when he stands trial on Dec 16.
Kernell, the son of a Tennessee state congressman, is accused of hacking into the Alaskan Governor’s personal email account and releasing screenshots of email content and contact lists to online forums.
His father, a Democrat, said he had nothing to do with the incident.
Online user "rubico," thought by authorities to be Kernell, boasted of his break-in on an online forum, saying he used Yahoo’s "forgot my password" mechanism to change Palin’s password to "popcorn."
He successfully reset the login information after answering security questions about the Governor’s zip code, birth date, and where she met her husband - Wasilla High - a romantic detail Palin herself had revealed to the world not long before at the Republican National Convention.
In addition to leaking personal information and photos of Palin’s friends and family, the hacker might have publicized more sensitive information, as Palin is known to have used her personal account for state related business as well.
The McCain campaign described the hacking as an invasion of Palin’s privacy while her own spokeswoman, Tracy Schmitt, said she hoped the investigation would "send a clear signal to reassure all Americans that their personal email accounts cannot be hacked into with impunity."
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