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The Clinton Email Kerfuffle & Shadow IT
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Mcschweety
Mcschweety,
 User Rank: Apprentice
7/5/2016 | 3:14:58 PM
Re: Clinton Email server
Powell didn't use a private server, he had a personal account, like most people do, and he only used it for on-boarding to the State Department, and then for innocuous incidentals when he was out of the office.  (smart phones were not in play - so being on the road was different). What Hillary did is expose the entirety of her server - including emails sent, received, drafts, notes, deleted emails, calendars, contact lists for 4 solid years.

 

The box was a rickety, vulnerable, poorly configured port-scanner honey pot, ripe for the picking.  The PST and OST files were not encrypted.  The SysAdmins outside of Pagliano didn't have government security clearence.

 

It would have been safer if Hillary had shouted her emails over a bullhorn in a crowded Starbucks for 4 years, at least that way only people in earshot could get the classified info.

What Hillary did was the equivalent of an in-house CPA at a Fortune 500 company choosing to use a personal offshore bank account to conduct company transactions, then deleting half the ledger when the auditors showed up.  The only difference is the CPA didn't put lives at risk.

 
Marilyn Cohodas
Marilyn Cohodas,
 User Rank: Strategist
3/24/2015 | 10:27:33 AM
Re: Clinton Email server
From your perspective, Ojas,  it certainly does seems like the State Department has had a fair amount of ShadowIT in its security policy (pun intended, with reference to Edward Snowded) for some time.  But to your point about the educational value of the controvery -- the practice of letting the Secretary of State use his or her private email goes back goes back to Colin Powell. So it's a bipartison lesson that can be applied  in both the private and public sector..
vleg147
vleg147,
 User Rank: Apprentice
3/23/2015 | 8:40:01 PM
Undisciplined ... How does she know her email server hasn't been hacked?
Clinton either got lousy advice about security/policy, or didn't care.  I'm sorry security is inconvenient.  Yes, it shouldn't be,, but I'd like to know what her risk assessment really was.  I've jokingly been telling folks that, if need be, we could always ask the Chinese or Russians for copies of all of her email - they've probably got everything!  Can you say "Manchurian Candidate", or susceptible to blackmail by a foreign government?  I'm not fan of conspiracy theories, but if I were her and if there were ANY question about the content of any of her email - personal or otherwise - I'd recommend she publicize everything she's got and deal with it up front.
orege940
orege940,
 User Rank: Author
3/23/2015 | 1:15:33 PM
Re: Clinton Email server
I was looking at it not from the governmental viewpoint (which, of course, has many more implications than what I covered and people with far more expertise than I to comment), but rather as a catalyzing event for day-to-day IT operations and security professionals to shine a light on their own organizations. Sometimes these public events end up being incredibly educational and help us design the policies we set in IT every day.
orege940
orege940,
 User Rank: Author
3/23/2015 | 1:09:38 PM
Re: It is about more than convenience
I agree that we can't expect junior employees to do the "right thing" if senior employees won't. My point was that the InfoSec function has to understand behavior in a way that we have never had to before because traditional restrictions are very easy for end users to bypass in mobile.
blang@endgame.com
[email protected],
 User Rank: Apprentice
3/23/2015 | 12:04:41 PM
It is about more than convenience
From a practictioner standpoint this is about more than convenience.  If the senior level executives won't even follow the security policies that are developed specifically to reduce the risk of a security event how can we expect the regular workers to follow the policies?  Security, especially policy adherence, needs to be emphasized from the top down and that means that starting from the highest level executive the policies should be followed.  If you are expecting Joe the sale guy to encrypt his emails, you have to make sure that the CEO is encrypting his/hers, etc. otherwise you are exposing your organziation.  
Jeff Stebelton
Jeff Stebelton,
 User Rank: Strategist
3/23/2015 | 9:28:17 AM
Clinton Email server
No, this is ALL about government transparency, and the lack of it. Our top diplomat conducted sensitive business on her own server, in violation of the law and keeping discussions vital to our national security and interests in secrecy. Whether she knew she could have multiple email accounts on one device or not is irrelevant (and I don't think you'll find very many that would actually believe that anyway). She violated protocol and the law and hid her correspondence as a top government employee and is now placing herself as her own arbitrator as to what email is relevant and needs turned over.  
KevinB748
KevinB748,
 User Rank: Apprentice
3/21/2015 | 8:09:19 PM
Not just one device, many...
The issue with Secretary Clinton's email access is not just about one device but an issue of national security. And her access was not just limited to one device, but many and for a time without SSL/TLS based on research. https://www.venafi.com/blog/post/what-venafi-trustnet-tells-us-about-the-clinton-email-server/ Outlook Web Access was and is enabled on the server for access from any web browser on any computer. 
anon2212088750
anon2212088750,
 User Rank: Apprentice
3/20/2015 | 2:20:31 PM
This is not a matter of convenience
With all due respect to the author. IMHO this is not a matter of convenience but a deliberate attempt to evade the rules and regulations of the US goverment.


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