David Petraeus Was Brought Down by ... Gmail

[xchrom]

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.'

[Tennessee Gal]

1. It is always amazing how stupid people can be. A man in his position definitely should have known

better. The fact that he behaved in ways that probably went against his better judgement unfortunately disqualifies him for his position in the government.

[Ian David]

2. It didn't help that his password was "Password."

Okay, I made that up.

[alcibiades_mystery]

3. It was 'root'

[retread]

7. Wow. That guess was just uncanny!

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

9. .

Yeah I wouldn't br surprised if his luggage combination wad 1, 2, 3, 4.

[marlakay]

4. So was his email hacked?

Or was the FBI looking for a reason to check up on him, maybe suspecting something?

[Barack_America]

11. I feel this is likely.

I suspect there is more to this story.

[yardwork]

19. The FBI was checking up on the CIA at the insistence of the House!

The Republicans have been determined to tie Benghazi to Obama and use it to win the election. The House insisted on investigations, and one of those investigations led to the downfall of their favorite candidate for 2016. The Republicans did this to themselves.

[uponit7771]

5. Yeah, it DOES matter how it was hacked...the head of the CIA expected some privacy from gmail

...that's disturbing seeing Petreaus doesn't seem bubble fucked like the rest of the KKKon cult

[yardwork]

20. If the head of the CIA expected privacy on his gmail account then it's good he resigned.

Even I know that there is no privacy in any email account. Ever.

[Paladin]

6. Isn't There An Old Yiddish Saying......

.....which roughly translates to something like: "When the prick stands, the brain dies"?

Sounds like the General is the latest Exhibit "A" for that one.......

[Comrade_McKenzie]

8. Brought it on himself. Time to replace him and move on. Such is politics. nt

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

10. Couldn't he at least open an account under Pavid Detraeus? This dude is

the worst spy ever.

[Coyotl]

12. Well, now he is a free man and can have lots of affairs

between divorce hearings

[Romulox]

13. Nobody's willing to say it, but I will: one's commitment to their marital vows are a matter of honor

If he's willing to lie to his wife, who else is he willing to lie to? It's, as I said, a matter of honor--and honor is something a man does for himself, not others.

My honest opinion.

[CTyankee]

16. but we don't know if he didn't tell his wife at some point...

marriages have stayed together despite infidelities...

[hlthe2b]

14. It is inexplicable to me that he could have been so ignorant of the risks of personal email

The whole affair issue aside, how could he be so stupid?

Ignoring, once again, the insanity of having an affair that could lead to extortion or blackmail, while serving as head of the world's most critical clandestine intelligence organization, the intense lack of judgement to use a highly hackable gmail account? Really?

I can forgive human fallibility to an extent, but such stupidity and recklessness? Hell no. Good riddance.

[ladjf]

15. I'm amazed the some of these top Generals have been brought down lately by things

they had put into emails. I blows my paranoid mind that these high ranking people would trust their most personal, and unlawful , information to the INTERNET. You would think that the head of the CIA would know what the NSA is doing, and especially to high ranking intelligence officials.

But, it was tape recordings made in the Oval Office that brought Nixon down and he was the one who had the tape machines installed but forgot about it later.

[Leopolds Ghost]

17. This is why Gmail is not something you should use if you have an expectation of privacy

Last edited Sat Nov 10, 2012, 11:21 PM - Edit history (1)

The head of "intelligence" should have known not to attempt to share a gmail account with his mistress in order to conceal an affair.

Gmail accounts were one of the first things to come to US attention in the wake of the attacks on the US ten years ago.

It was the premise of that movie with Don Cheadle for heavens sake.

Gmail, like the banks that deliberately destroyed Elliot Spitzer's career, have been given the tools under the Patriot Act and their own TOS to monitor customers for "suspicious transactions" such as logging on from an "unusual location" etc. The same may have happened to you if you had a calling card and used it on vacation and had your calling card privileges disconnected for no good reason -- blaming the customer for something that they have the right to do (why else would you need a calling card?) in the enforcement of a policy that is nominally to protect you from identity theft, but is really about tracking their own customer usage in order to maximize their investment. After all, information is money and they want all the information they can legally steal about their customer's habits.

[yardwork]

18. What's hilarious about this is that the Republicans did it to themselves.

If the Republicans hadn't been making such a big deal about Benghazi in an effort to defeat Obama with it, then the FBI probably wouldn't have been digging around Petraeus's gmail account in the first place. This is a direct result of Darryl Issa.

I love it.