FBI Is Still Figuring Out This Email Thing

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the so-what's-that-SMTP-thing? dept

Okay, by this point, it should be no surprise at all that the FBI is somewhat incompetent when it comes to technology. Considering their ongoing saga of throwing millions of dollars at computer systems that arrive late, over-budget, and don’t actually do anything useful, is it really any surprise that the FBI is now admitting that many agents don’t actually have email accounts yet? That, of course, is for external email accounts — not their internal system. Of course, this isn’t the first time that the FBI’s email system has been in the news — though, apparently, it’s too much effort for most of the press covering this story to look back into the past. About a year ago, there were news reports that the FBI was shutting down their email system, because they were afraid of hacks — similar to the one that the Secret Service faced. What was interesting there, was that the FBI’s email system was apparently run by an outside party. It’s not clear what’s happened in between now and then — and if the agents lacking email used to have accounts that were ditched last year or if this is an ongoing issue. Either way, is it really that hard to set everyone up with an email account? If the fear is having the system hacked, then set up policies. Since they already have internal email within the FBI, then clearly such a system should only be used for non-confidential information.