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Showing Original Post only (View all)David Petraeus Was Brought Down by ... Gmail [View all]
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/11/david-petraeus-was-brought-down-by-gmail/265057/While David Petraeus was still serving as a four-star general in the U.S. Army, he began exchanging emails with the woman who would eventually write his biography. After Petraeus retired from military service and accepted a new post -- director of the Central Intelligence Agency -- those email exchanges, it's believed, turned into something else: an affair.
The affair might have concluded as so many others do -- temporarily clandestine, permanently concealed -- were it not for the technology that helped to ignite it in the first place. The FBI, the Wall Street Journal reports, began to suspect that Petraeus's personal Gmail account had been hacked -- so it launched an inquiry to determine whether someone else was accessing his email messages. In the process, the agency discovered what Google's servers had known all along: that the head of the CIA, the keeper of the country's secrets, had been keeping a secret of his own.
So how could a (potentially) hacked email account lead to resignation of one of the most powerful men in the nation? Why, if the account in question is a personal one, does it matter?
Because when you're the director of the CIA, very few things are, strictly speaking, personal. Your Gmail account certainly isn't. Even the most mundane elements of your life can relate in their way to the interests of the nation. "The computer-security investigation -- which raised questions about a potential compromise to national security -- points to one reason Mr. Petraeus and the White House decided he couldn't remain in the senior intelligence position," the Journal explains. And that's partly because
'an extramarital affair has significant implications for an official in a highly sensitive post, because it can open an official to blackmail. Security officials are sensitive to misuse of personal email accounts -- not only official accounts -- because there have been multiple instances of foreign hackers targeting personal emails.'
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It is always amazing how stupid people can be. A man in his position definitely should have known
Tennessee Gal
Nov 2012
#1
Yeah, it DOES matter how it was hacked...the head of the CIA expected some privacy from gmail
uponit7771
Nov 2012
#5
If the head of the CIA expected privacy on his gmail account then it's good he resigned.
yardwork
Nov 2012
#20
Brought it on himself. Time to replace him and move on. Such is politics. nt
Comrade_McKenzie
Nov 2012
#8
Couldn't he at least open an account under Pavid Detraeus? This dude is
Guy Whitey Corngood
Nov 2012
#10
Nobody's willing to say it, but I will: one's commitment to their marital vows are a matter of honor
Romulox
Nov 2012
#13
It is inexplicable to me that he could have been so ignorant of the risks of personal email
hlthe2b
Nov 2012
#14
I'm amazed the some of these top Generals have been brought down lately by things
ladjf
Nov 2012
#15
This is why Gmail is not something you should use if you have an expectation of privacy
Leopolds Ghost
Nov 2012
#17