THIS internet was serious business, yes I was behind a proxy, only one, if this … ever got to the FBI I was f–ked.”

– Excerpt from a message posted to 4chan.org by someone claiming to have hacked into Gov. Sarah Palin’s Yahoo Mail account

Five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and a three-year term of supervised release. That’s the maximum sentence facing the Tennessee college student who was indicted today on charges that he broke into Gov. Sarah Palin’s private email account last month. According to a statement from the FBI, David C. Kernell–an economics major at the University of Tennessee and the son of Tennessee state legislator Mike Kernell–was indicted by a federal grand jury for “gaining unlawful access to stored communications and obtaining information from a protected computer via interstate communication,” or as the McCain campaign described it, “a shocking invasion of the Governor’s privacy and a violation of the law.”

Kernell entered the not guilty plea at the hearing and was released on bond with the following conditions:

• He may not leave the Eastern District of Tennessee without court permission.
• He may not possess a computer.
• He may use the Internet for classwork only.
• He may not have any contact with Gov. Sarah Palin or her family.

A trial date has been set for Dec. 16.