Oh, you thought we were done talking about emails in politics? Vice President Mike Pence routinely used a private email address to conduct political affairs as governor of Indiana, according to the Indianapolis Star. Pence at times used this account to discuss sensitive matters, including homeland security issues. Piling on the irony, that account was hacked last summer.
The Star submitted a public records request and found emails from Pence’s personal AOL account. The then-governor communicated with top advisors regarding items including an FBI update on the arrests of several men on federal terror-related charges.
This is a big deal, cybersecurity experts say, because private email accounts are more susceptible to hackers than secure government accounts, as was proven when the account was in fact compromised by a scammer saying he was "urgently in need of some money."
Pence’s office released a statement:
"Similar to previous governors, during his time as Governor of Indiana, Mike Pence maintained a state email account and a personal email account,” the statement read. “As Governor, Mr. Pence fully complied with Indiana law regarding email use and retention. Government emails involving his state and personal accounts are being archived by the state consistent with Indiana law, and are being managed according to Indiana’s Access to Public Records Act.”
Some have expressed concerns about transparency. Government emails are monitored on state servers, but personal emails, of course, are not.
“It’s one thing to have an AOL account and use it to send birthday cards to grandkids," said to Justin Cappos, a computer security professor at New York University's Tandon School of Engineering. "But it’s another thing to use it to send and receive messages that are sensitive and could negatively impact people if that information is public.”
While this is a different matter from Hillary Clinton’s emails, the irony—of course—is clear, as HRC's traveling press secretary pointed out.
I look forward to the righteous indignation, wild claims, and multiple investigations into this. https://t.co/SW6QqRuoWK
