It wasn't quite the Watergate scandal. It won't live in such infamy.
But in some ways, the brazen hacking into a vice presidential candidate's personal e-mail account -- and the posting of personal information on the World Wide Web -- is far worse than a two-bit burglary.
The penalties should be worse, too.
A federal grand jury in Tennessee this week indicted David Kernell, 20, of Knoxville. The son of state Democratic Rep. Mike Kernell and a University of Tennessee economics major, the younger Kernell faces a maximum of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and a three-year term of supervised release.
Kernell allegedly hacked into GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's personal e-mail account and posted some of her private information on the Internet.
This is not just a boys-will-be-boys prank. This is an early blueprint for potential partisan cyberwar. Taken to the extreme, it could be a precedent for an even more toxic political future.
And that's just the politics. The blatant and intentional invasion of someone's personal privacy is an infinitely greater offense.
This young man needs to be made a lesson of.
It may not be Big Brother we need to worry about in the techno-future. It may be Little Brother.