Emails: Hillary Clinton asked for a BlackBerry in 2009, but the NSA said no

[magical thyme]

I thought there were no rules broken...another lie bites the dust

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/emails-clinton-sought-secure-smartphone-rebuffed-nsa-202524970--politics.html

Clinton’s desire for a secure “Blackberry-like” device, like that provided to President Barack Obama, is recounted in a series of February 2009 exchanges between high-level officials at the State Department and NSA. Clinton was sworn in as secretary the prior month, and had become “hooked” on reading and answering emails on a Blackberry she used during the 2008 presidential race.

Resolving the issue was given such priority as to result in a face-to-face meeting between Clinton chief of staff Cheryl Mills, seven senior State Department staffers with five NSA security experts. According to a summary of the meeting, the request was driven by Clinton’s reliance on her Blackberry for email and keeping track of her calendar. Clinton chose not to use a laptop or desktop computer that could have provided her access to email in her office, according to the summary.

Standard smartphones are not allowed into areas designated as approved for the handling of classified information, such as the block of offices used by senior State Department officials, known by the nickname “Mahogany Row” for the quality of their paneling. Mills said that was inconvenient, because they had to leave their offices and retrieve their phones to check messages.

Mills also asked about waivers provided during the Bush administration to then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for her staff to use Blackberries in their secure offices. But the NSA had phased out such waivers due to security concerns.


The following month, in March 2009, Clinton began using private email accounts accessed through her Blackberry to exchange messages with her top aides. The State Department has thus far released more than 52,000 pages of Clinton’s work-related emails, a small percentage of which have been withheld because they contain information considered sensitive to national security.

[ProfessorPlum]

1. I still can't figure out what this 'scandal' is supposed to be about

She preferred using a BlackBerry and the technology obviously existed, so why couldn't the gov. provide her one? This is stupid. I support Sanders in the primary, but I can't find anything nefarious in any of this email story. It feels like Whitewater - much noise, no actual wrongdoing or intent.

[sufrommich]

2. It's about bringing Hillary Clinton down.

And it's been embraced by Bernie supporters as much as it has by freepers. Strange bedfellows.

[randome]

3. It's the only way the 'revolution' can succeed.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]You should never stop having childhood dreams.[/center][/font][hr]

[magical thyme]

4. national security. it's right in the article. nt

[ProfessorPlum]

7. yeah. But . . .

I would think the nsa could have produced a secure device for her pronto. if they were actually concerned.

I think she's a stinker of a candidate, but the Republicans _routinely_ do things that threatens/destroys our national security as _policy_, and the media couldn't give two shits about it. this just seems, like so many of the Clinton "scandals", to be a special singling out of her behavior compared to the rest of humanity. The apparatus of the state had four years to create a solution that was acceptable for everyone, and they didn't care, so why should we?

[magical thyme]

9. read the article. no blackberries. no waivers for no blackberries. they are not secure. nt

[ProfessorPlum]

13. yeah, I get that. But as soon as she started using one

why didn't NSA get her one that was secure, like she asked for? Security is actually _their_ problem.

[DCBob]

10. Me too.

I tried my best to read this carefully and find the "scandal" but failed.

[gollygee]

14. Me too n/t

[tomm2thumbs]

5. Sounds like she wanted to do what she wanted to do, damn any security concerns

not very presidential on many levels

and hasn't served her well, as she now says she regrets her decision

[magical thyme]

6. & she used the unsecure blackberry in countries China could easily hack straight off cell towers

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/hillary-clintons-personal-blackberry-less-secure-116200

And the security risks were magnified because Clinton used her personal BlackBerry on travel in foreign countries where State Department employees are routinely cautioned about the use of mobile devices.

A POLITICO review of press pool photos turned up instances of Clinton using her Blackberry in Vietnam, Brazil and South Korea.

The risk of targeted theft of an official’s data is greatest in nations with telecoms that are owned or largely controlled by the government, said Martin Libicki, a cybersecurity expert and senior scientist at the Rand Corporation. That’s because state-aligned hackers could pull any unencrypted data, such as the metadata connected with a phone call, straight off the cell towers.

In Vietnam in particular, analysts say, there’s a concern Chinese government hackers could pull information from the Vietnamese government-owned telecom — either through an intelligence-sharing agreement with Vietnam or because Vietnamese officials make little effort to keep Chinese spies out of their networks.

Some of the security deficit for Clinton’s BlackBerry can be attributed to predictable differences between an enterprise security system managed by a staff of IT professionals and a homebrew system like Clinton’s, administered by an individual or a small staff, people familiar with BlackBerry enterprise security told POLITICO.

A recent Verizon report, for example, found it takes companies roughly a month on average to discover they’ve been breached, even with complex security and a team of staffers. “For an individual, it could take them forever,” Stephen Perciballi, a systems security engineer who previously worked for Softchoice, a major BlackBerry retailer for government and industry.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/hillary-clintons-personal-blackberry-less-secure-116200#ixzz439oLfpKg
Follow us: @politico on Twitter | Politico on Facebook

[DanTex]

8. LOL. So asking for a secure phone is now "breaking a rule". #desperation

[LexVegas]

11. You are in the bargaining stage of grief. nt

[JoePhilly]

12. And a few more pro-Bernie OPs gets pushed a little deeper down the GDP stack.