Campaign says private Romney emails possibly hacked

Authorities are investigating a report that Mitt Romney's personal email account has been hacked, his presidential campaign said. The website Gawker reported that an unnamed hacker had broken into the Republican flagbearer's private Hotmail account by guessing the answer to a security question about Romney's favorite pet. The anonymous hacker, whom Gawker said tipped off the website to his action, said the same password also gave him access to Romney's account for file-sharing service Dropbox, but that he did not provide any screen-grabs or other evidence of his tampering. "The proper authorities are investigating this crime," campaign spokeswoman Gail Gitcho said in a statement. She declined to confirm whether the hacked email account was Romney's Hotmail account, if he was still using it, or what sort of data may have been compromised. "We will have no further comment on it," Gitcho said. Romney is not the first US politician whose emails faced security threats during the heat of a presidential campaign. In 2008 a young man hacked into the emails of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who was on the Republican ticket with White House hopeful John McCain. A number of her emails and two family photos taken from her account were posted online. The FBI soon traced the hacking back to a Tennessee college student, who was arrested and sentenced to one year in jail.