Customer Reviews

Where Have All The Emails Gone?: How something as seemingly benign as White House email can have freaky national security consequences

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This is a decent book, but the author writes way way way too much in the first person.

He also references his company way way way too many times.

Not sure if this is a book or an advertorial.

Are you a conspiracy theorist? If you are, then this book is for you! Author David Gewirtz, has done an outstanding job of writing a book that offers insight into the White House security flaws that led to the recent missing of millions e-mails; as well as, archived ones. But, one begs to ask the questions: Did the security flaws grow out of outright stupidity on the part of IT management; or, on purpose; from a White House that each day breaks more constitutional laws before 9:00am, than were broken during the whole Watergate scandal?

Gewirtz, begins by looking at three possible scenarios that brought about the missing e-mail problem from a national security perspective, with consequences. Then, the author discusses how controversy over how the White House uses e-mail, dates almost as far back as e-mail's very existence. Next, he looks at how many messages may be missing and then deconstructs some of the damning assertions made by the loyal opposition about how e-mail messages can't just disappear. The author then explains why the President's staff uses at least two domains for e-mail: EOP.gov for official business and GWB43.com for political business. He continues by exploring GWB43.com for clues into the White House e-mail infrastructure. Then, the author takes a strange detour into what he calls "mob Journalism," as he continues to dig for the truth. Next, he explores, in-depth, the technical details of what makes the national security implications of the missing e-mails so troubling. He also discusses what White House spokesfolk like Dana Perino and Tony Snow (ex spokesmen) had been saying about the missing e-mails. Then, the author explains Dana Perino's confirmation that the e-mails were lost; and, her explanation that they were lost, because of the White House's migration from Notes to Outlook that went bad. Next, he looks at why Karl Rove kept losing his BlackBerry devices--two of which are allegedly permanently lost, and contain a mother lode of confidential and classified information. The author then analyzes whether the IT management at the White House are incomprehensibly unprofessional as they seem. Or, is it a pretense of cluelessness that is being used by Karl Rove to divert questions of disclosure, with regards to the firing of the Federal Prosecutors; and, to protect ex Attorney General Alberto "Don't Recall" Gonzales? Next, the author lists six recommendations that will fix the e-mail problem at the White House. Finally, the he discusses technical issues and concerns, plus security issues and concerns that blast through the political rhetoric and even party affiliation.

If I've learned anything from this most excellent book, the White House missing e-mail problem needs to be fixed. But more importantly, I've also learned (but actually knew already) that what appears on the political surface, is not necessarily what is really going on below the surface. The Truth Is Still Out There!!

The subject of the question is the alleged disappearance of millions of e-mail messages sent by White House staff members during the administration of George W. Bush. It is certainly a legitimate one as there are laws requiring the retaining of all presidential communication for historical purposes. As Gewirtz points out, the laws in this area are somewhat vague and outdated, especially when it pertains to e-mail. Those e-mails are also the subject of some extreme political bickering, as it is likely that some of the subject matter will be damaging to the Bush administration. This is especially true regarding the firing of a large number of U. S. attorneys for what appears to be less than honorable reasons.
Within this context, an unbiased and accurate assessment of the situation is a difficult task. However, Gewirtz, an expert in the principles of e-mail, manages to put forward a politically unbiased report on what he can glean from the sometimes admittedly scant evidence. His conclusions are sobering, if not outright scary. The level of security of White House e-mail is abysmal and the most frightening report was the admission by the White House that former political director Karl Rove has lost more than one Blackberry handheld computer. Given that Rove sat in on high-level security briefings and used his Blackberry to sent messages, it is a very possible that the lost devices contained the most sensitive of national secrets. Amid all the talk of safety and security by the Bush administration it is disgustingly ironic that the point of greatest potential danger for the release of critical information could have been Karl Rove's incompetence at hanging on to important equipment.
As someone well versed in computer security and a political junkie, I enjoyed this book on both counts. Given the survival potential of e-mails in the modern world, it is still quite likely that most of the lost messages will someday surface. One can hope that it will all be sometime in the future and that no real national harm was done. However, as Gewirtz does such a good job pointing out, there is a potential for significant risk as a consequence of the incompetent way e-mail has been handled in the White House.

Author David Gewirtz shouldn't expect kudos from the Bush White house for pointing out highly unethical email vanishing acts and tidbits that should shut down any private business if it weren't the federal government. Either by ineptitude or a massively top-level of bending laws, you'll enjoy this intriguing indictment of a boneheaded approach to security at the top of our government.

Not that Karl Rove's lost blackberrys, used to send and receive highly secretive information ended up LOST, but that over 100 million emails following 9-11 were all unguarded and vulnerable.

Is it possible for Osama bin Laden to have tapped into U.S. emails and communications? Author Gewitz knows about as much as any brainiac can about the subject of the net; let him scare you. This one's a recommended read to the max!

I was provided with a reviewers copy of David Gewirtz' book, Where Have All the Emails Gone? Subtitled, "How something as seemingly benign as White House email can have freaky national security consequences," it was born out of a series of articles David wrote this year for an on-line magazine. This book expands upon his short articles. And it may make your head explode.

Contents:
Introduction
Chapter 1: Prepare to be freaked out
Chapter 2: A historical perspective
Chapter 3: Can email messages just disappear?
Chapter 4: Follow the domains
Chapter 5: Who runs [...]?
Chapter 6: A detour into mob journalism
Chapter 7: The nightmare scenario
Chapter 8: An archiving plan only FEMA could love
Chapter 9: Migrating from Notes to Outlook
Chapter 10: Why did Karl Rove keep losing his BlackBerry?
Chapter 11: Understanding the root causes
Chapter 12: My formal recommendations
Chapter 13: The final questions
Appendix A: Letters from "Deep Mail"
Appendix B: An interview with Roger Matus on email archiving and retrieval
Appendix C: What your company can learn from the White House email problem
Appendix D: An interview with Marie Patterson on email storage and retrieval
Index

Gewirtz begins the book by providing you the background to its birth, a series of articles that he wrote for an online magazine, but the story took on a life of its own as he continued to research the articles. In a nutshell, the White House admitted that it lost upwards of 5 million emails (this is government we are talking about - it is probably more than that) after Congress requested records of the firings of some United States Attorneys. From there, Gewirtz adds information concerning a mail migration at a very inopportune moment, questionable data backups, and nonexistent archiving. Peppered throughout the book at tips for your company, hard hitting questions for the White House, as well as Congress, and some interesting details about the use (and loss) of Blackberrys.

If you learn something from this book, it hopefully will be that your company operates in a much better IT management and compliance area. What Gewirtz found was shocking. You may think that email is boring, but it can be anything but. In this book, which is not a Democratic/Republican or liberal/conservative tome, you find a history of misuse and abuse of email. Not only that, but the lack of any verifiable controls or policies may lead to tragic events. One event, the migration of the White House mail from Notes to Outlook, took place during the ramp up to the war in Iraq. Gewirtz asks, many times, who's responsible for that great idea? No, not the actual Notes migration, but why then? Since I am on that topic, I find it hard to believe, that during the migration, that they "lost" that many emails. Not only that, but the fact that you haven't heard any White House staffers complain. But that isn't all. People routinely lose their Blackberrys, people that have sensitive information on them. Worse, it looks like the attitude is "Oh, well, get him another one." Frightening.

I didn't know quite what to expect from this book. I had read a couple of the articles that David published, but didn't think that he had enough material for a 214 page book. I was wrong. I think that he could have added more, but that would have made the book too technical. As it is, the book reads fast and is written in a casual style that will allow anyone to understand the concepts, background, and issues. Gewirtz includes additional information, on a special website, so that you read for yourself most of his research. A nice touch.

Email can be boring, but not when delivered in such a fine expose. And the topic will grab you, make you want to call your Congressman, and demand action and accountability. If you specialize in compliance and corporate policies, you will not believe what you are reading. Take some time to peer in at the way email is handled in the White House. You won't believe what you see.