The Government vs. Secure Email
The recent report that CIA Director John Brennan and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson’s personal email accounts were compromised in a hack have many people questioning just how safe we all really are.
It’s one thing for a business to get hacked –sheer commercial value of its services/products, employee information, and a level of digital incompetence puts a digital target on large businesses. But now we’ve learned that two more officials within government agencies fall victim? This comes after the government learned back in July that the Office Of Personnel Management had their systems hacked, which exposed more than 25 million applicants’ information. All individuals impacted had applied for government security clearances.
Things are starting to get serious.
It began with the long, drawn-out email scandal involving Hillary Clinton’s personal email use, but now it’s progressed further down the authority line.
The CIA (the Central Intelligence Agency) is, at least in the public’s mind, supposed to be one of the most, if not the most, guarded and covert government agency in the game. With confidential motives and exchanges, and a widely recognized Hollywood-established cloak-and-dagger modus operandi, the CIA is the backbone of the government.
But, now we’re being told that an embittered high school hacker managed to access the CIA Director’s private AOL email account?
Really? The teen’s motivation behind the hack … to shame the government. And ashamed Brennan and Johnson should be.
So, is government information as secure as we all once thought it was?
First off, why are Homeland Security and CIA officials using AOL and Comcast-linked personal email accounts? It’s quite obvious that a person with high rank within a government agency would make for an easy digital target.
And secondly, why is security clearance information being transferred (or even mentioned) in a standard, personal email account? Have we not learned that when important and extremely confidential information leaves a standard email account it’s all but exposed to the general public?
When it comes down to it, our government agencies need to start setting a better example in relation to digital security.
Take action immediately: eliminate the use of private email accounts for all government officials and employees, and then adopt an agency-wide secure email service. Essentially, this will help protect all incoming and outgoing messages, regardless of the message’s contents or included attachments.
If government agencies can adopt a set of secure email practices then maybe, just maybe, the top corporations can implement a similar solution.
What are your thoughts on the situation at hand and what do you think should happen next?
How should the US government fix their mistakes, and inept digital security measures, that have been made in the past?
Written by Peter J. Schaub
President & CEO – NeoCertified
