This page was last updated on August 26, 2015.
EMAIL SERVER; Carl Davidson; Facebook; August 22, 2015.
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Carl Davidson (KD): “EMAIL SERVER. I’m curious. I’m a retired IT guy, and know exactly what an email server is, and why you sometimes put them in closets. I’ve done it. I also know there’s usually several backups somewhere off-site, so ‘wiping’ it doesn’t help much, save for getting rid of a virus.
“But how many US voters know what it is and what it does? Does it even matter?”
I’ve been waiting for a comment like this about Hillary Clinton’s personal e-mail server – operated at her house - while she was Secretary of State (SoS). Sometime after she left office, Mrs. Clinton turned over operations to a third party and this firm subsequently moved the server to its facility. There are reports the third party located the server in a bathroom closet, but that sounds a bit farfetched.
Since KD mentioned his credentials, I’ll mention mine. I briefly ran HQ IT operations for an evil <g> oil company and ran its applied technology group for about eight years. This included design and implementation of our e-mail system. I also briefly ran IT operations for a software startup.
That said, it doesn’t matter because the true issue is not technical. The problem is judgment.
For argument’s sake, let’s assume Mrs. Clinton believes she’s telling the truth about everything. We read about computer breaches/hacks on a routine basis. It’s no secret the US SoS is one of the prime targets of state-sponsored foreign hackers and spies, and run-of-the-mill e-mail systems are easy for spies and professional hackers to breach. As noted previously, the server was housed at the Clinton house for the duration of her time in office, not a secured data center. From what I’ve read so far, it looks like an IT guy from Mrs. Clinton’s 2008 campaign set up the server. I don’t know who handled the server’s “care and feeding” on a day-to-day basis. Mrs. Clinton’s comment the server was on property (her house) guarded by the Secret Service means nothing. A hacker/spy doesn’t need to be anywhere near an e-mail server to hack it.
Mrs. Clinton said she neither sent nor received classified e-mail via her personal e-mail account. Even if it turned out to be true, it’s not an assertion Mrs. Clinton could honestly have made back in 2009 for at least two reasons. First, Mrs. Clinton couldn’t control what other people sent her. Second, Mrs. Clinton would have no idea which unclassified messages she read or sent would later become classified. We also need to remember info that may not reach the “classified” level can still be very valuable to our enemies. Finally, Mrs. Clinton was not the only person with an account on her server. Everything I just wrote about Mrs. Clinton sending/receiving classified e-mail also applies to all of the other users of her e-mail server.
I haven’t seen it discussed anywhere, but for some government officials you could make a case their “personal” e-mail should be treated the same as their official-business e-mail.
Mrs. Clinton said, “When I got to work as secretary of state, I opted, for convenience, to use my personal email account. I thought it would be easier to carry just one device.” If Mrs. Clinton was willing to sacrifice national security for her convenience, it shows incredibly poor judgment. It’s difficult to believe no one - either on her staff or career State Department IT and security personnel - told Mrs. Clinton what she wanted to do was incredibly reckless. There’s almost no computer system that can’t be hacked, but we don’t need to make doing so easier.
Since Mrs. Clinton is not stupid, I have a hard time believing she would go with a personal server if convenience were her primary concern. A responsible person in Mrs. Clinton’s position would have told the State Department’s IT and security guys what she wanted to do and asked how to make it secure. The response, of course, would have been a more tactful wording of “are you nuts?”
In nontechnical terms, what Mrs. Clinton did was like going from having her mail delivered by armored car to a safe deposit box, to having her mail delivered by the USPS to her roadside mailbox. That could be a slight exaggeration, but not by much if the feds are doing their job.
Now let’s look at KD’s comments. I have to admit I’m surprised it was KD who came to Mrs. Clinton’s defense.
KD wrote he “know[s] exactly what an email server is, and why you sometimes put them in closets.” First, the only time a computer belongs in a closet is when it’s not running. Unless we’re talking about a very large “closet” and/or a closet with at least minimal air flow or air conditioning, running any computer in a closet is a sure way to ruin it via heat buildup. Second, we’re talking about a server for the SoS. There’s no way an e-mail server for the US SoS belongs in a closet under any circumstances.
KD wrote, “there’s usually several backups somewhere off-site.” That would be true for a professionally-run data center, whether large or small, but the server was located at her house for the duration of Mrs. Clinton’s time in office plus a few months after. To date I’ve seen nothing about the server’s “care and feeding.” If backups did/do exist they provide another security vulnerability, whether kept onsite or off.
Finally, KD asked “Does it even matter?” I think it does. After all, Mrs. Clinton knowingly jeopardized national security for at least four years and still tells anyone who will listen she did nothing wrong.
In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity. <g>
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