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Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Why Did Hillary Clinton Build Her Own Server?

James Comey declared: Hillary should have known better.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hillary-clinton-email-fbi-no-charges_us_577bb25ee4b04164641097bc?dfbw3ik9

Should she have, though? The question that begs is why did her predecessors at State do the same thing?

Here is an interesting conversation among some folks online who know about IT security:

"SecStates have been using private mail servers for the last three administrations. How about we focus on updating outdated policies?"

https://twitter.com/justicar/status/750423530185957376

This is something the Beltway never wants to do when discussing Emailgate. Ask why it's not just Hillary who has used private email, or even her along who used a private server.

Even Paul Waldman, who's fairer about Hillary than most pundits, still insists on believing that she did this because of a 'penchant for secrecy'-that presumably no one else in the State Department or other government officials have.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/07/05/what-hillary-clinton-needs-to-learn-from-her-email-mess/

I've never figured out what it is about being part of the Beltway media that gives you an ability to divine with perfect skill the thoughts and motivations of Hillary Clinton. They know convenience had nothing to do with it, and know secrecy had everything to do with it.

The GOP and the Beltway just want to make this about Hillary Clinton, full stop. But the fact is, it's not a story about any one politician but the trouble the government has had in getting it right regarding security.

Here is someone else who works in IT:

"Whatever internal system the government has set up for email communication is, I guarantee, a total and utter shitshow."

https://twitter.com/LaneWinree/status/750355370896453633

"Shitshow as in horrid UI, horrid performance, and just in general unusable. Most business email environments are. Government worse."

https://twitter.com/LaneWinree/status/750355594331185153

"Clinton probably complains about this, someone on staff looks into fixing it, someone somewhere thinks "Hey, we could just build a server"

https://twitter.com/LaneWinree/status/750355759871983616

"So a server gets built, Clinton uses it, and the whole thing gets overlooked because someone way down the chain doesn't vette it out."

https://twitter.com/LaneWinree/status/750356048486207488

"And if you're Clinton or her staff, you're thinking if IT signed off on it, it complies with all needed regulations"

https://twitter.com/LaneWinree/status/750356475789316096

Here's the dirty IT secret: This crap happens all the time. Someone at the IT level should know better and deny the request, and that's it."

https://twitter.com/LaneWinree/status/750357324242485248

"So it's totally reasonable for a manager to assume that if I sign off and build it, I believe it complies with compliance regulations."

https://twitter.com/LaneWinree/status/750358700322414592

"Because, well, compliance adherence over IT systems is something -I- should be responsible for. Not a manager. Or Secretary of State."

https://twitter.com/LaneWinree/status/750358861723369472

"Yes in IT you want to be helpful and provide solutions, but you MUST know how to comply with IT regulations. That's on you, not up the chain"

https://twitter.com/LaneWinree/status/750359572083343361

This completely contradicts James Comey's claim that a 'reasonable' person would have known better. No, they would reasonably listen to IT.

This is an IT problem with government security in general not about the alleged penchant for secrecy of one politician.

But let's face it, the GOP and the media could care less about security-just like neither gave a fig about Benghazi and Chris Stevens his family, the other victims and their families.

It was, as Kevin McCarthy divulged, about driving down her poll numbers at convincing Americans that she's 'untrustable.'

Beyond using it against her, you will never hear about either Benghazi or government IT security again.

"Yet it remains a problem. The fact that 'everybody else does it too' is dismissed as an excuse. But maybe it just points to the fact that this is a bigger problem than a singular individual or politician."

"If you're actually concerned about security, you fix the policies and procedures."

https://twitter.com/LaneWinree/status/750424111906693120

"Forget HRC, focusing on any single politician doesn't fix the security issues. You have to fix the underlying policy/governance procedures."

https://twitter.com/LaneWinree/status/750472242438471680

"And Powell was on record saying he was using AOL. AOL! Something's broken internally when that's a better tool"

https://twitter.com/LaneWinree/status/750477698913435649

Glenn White:

"So, ask yourself: Why do SecStates (at least the last three...) continually use external mail servers? Shouldn't we be asking THAT question?"

https://twitter.com/justicar/status/750477058619285504

Beltway pundits and the GOP ignore this question because they don't care about the answer. Security is the last thing on their minds.

If it looks like a duck, and talks like a duck, maybe it's' a duck.

If it's about Hillary Clinton, it's just politics.


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