Washington, Sep 23: The FBI has served a warrant at the college residence of David Kernell, a student at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville student in connection with the hacking of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s personal e-mail account.

Kernell (20) is the son of Mike Kernell, a Democratic state representative from Memphis.

The FBI and Secret Service launched a formal investigation on September 17 into the hacking of one of Palin’s Yahoo e-mail accounts.

Yahoo declined to comment September 18 on details of the investigation, citing Palin’s privacy and the sensitivity of such investigations, FOX News reported.

A Department of Justice spokesman told WBIR-TV that there has been “investigatory activity” in Knoxville regarding the investigation.

A witness told the station that several agents arrived at Kernell’s apartment complex early Sunday morning.

A witness told the station they took photos inside Kernell’s apartment and that his three roommates were subpoenaed to testify this week in Chattanooga.

The hacker who compromised Palin’s account used Ctunnel. com, an Internet proxy site, which renders Web users anonymous, to get into Palin’s e-mail.

Gabriel Ramuglia (25), a Web developer from Athens, Ga runs the site, said the hacker left behind revealing clues after posting screen grabs of Palin’s inbox.

Ramuglia said he saw the screenshots and recognized his site. He is now working with the FBI to provide agents with his business logs to help identify the criminal.

The McCain campaign said on Wednesday that the attack was “a shocking invasion of the Governor''s privacy and a violation of law.”

The break-in of Palin''s private account is especially significant because Palin sometimes uses non-government e-mail to conduct state business. (ANI)