I should begin by saying I generally don\u2019t consider issues like this \u201c30,000 emails\u201d thing.\u00a0 I consider them theatrics for the masses, much like a politician\u2019s sexual details or tax returns.\u00a0 That being said, I\u2019ve been running Exchange (Windows) mail servers for the past 15 years so I know a thing or two about how mail servers are run.\u00a0 So watching this whole issue unfold brought up some interesting issues for me, with our government, with Hillary, and with what changes really need to happen in 2017.<\/p>\n
The tipping point was when my wife and I were listening to an episode of\u00a0This American Life<\/a> which was trying to justify Hillary\u2019s private e-mail server.\u00a0 The basic premise was that this private e-mail server wasn\u2019t some Machiavellian scheming on Hillary\u2019s part, it was just a certain cluelessness and carelessness about a technology that the government hadn\u2019t really adopted yet. I\u2019d read some other justifications, like that it\u2019s accepted protocol to destroy an old phone with a hammer.<\/p>\n First I\u2019d like to debunk some of these justifications.\u00a0 And first among those is smashing a phone with a hammer.\u00a0 This is not just untrue, it shows real stupidity on the part of whoever decided to smash it.\u00a0 Smashing a phone will just smash the plastic and glass, more than likely it won\u2019t smash the flash memory on which sensitive data may reside.<\/p>\n Of course, in the private sector, business e-mail needs to be encrypted on a phone in such a way that it can never be retrieved if someone were to get the phone.\u00a0 It technically doesn\u2019t even sit on the phone.\u00a0 And if a phone is stolen, the e-mail administrator has the ability to remote wipe it.\u00a0 If you\u2019d like to know more about that you can check out IBM\u2019s MaaS360<\/a>.<\/p>\n Second was Ira Glass\u2019s charge that a lot of government officials use private e-mail accounts, citing Colin Powell\u2019s use of an AOL account.\u00a0 Now let\u2019s get this straight, there is a huge difference between using a personal commercial e-mail address and hosting your e-mails on your own server.\u00a0 An AOL account can be subpoenaed.\u00a0 AOL follows proper data storage protocols, they can pull up any and all e-mails that ever went through their organization.\u00a0 If Colin Powell were under investigation for something, the FBI could gain access to this.<\/p>\n