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Whitehouse Emails Were Lost Due to "Upgrade"

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the upgrading-to-orwell dept.

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "We now know how the Whitehouse managed to lose about five million emails. It seems that they 'upgraded' their Lotus Notes system, which had an automatic retention and backup system, for Microsoft Exchange, which did not support the automatic system. So they changed it to a manual process, where aides would manually sort emails one by one into individual PST files, which they call a 'journaling' archive system. They're still building a replacement for the retention system. Right when they had one finished, the White House CIO complained that it made Microsoft Exchange too slow, so they hired yet another contractor to build another one, causing a senior IT official to quit in protest. So they still haven't completed the project after almost eight years, and rely on humans to sort millions of emails."

4 of 482 comments (clear)

  1. These days? by wiredog · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Napoleon Bonaparte is credited with saying "Never blame on malice that which can adequately be explained by incompetence."

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    Best Slashdot Co
  2. Criminal? by Relic+of+the+Future · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So, assuming for a moment their story is true and it *is* just negligence, incompetence, and stupidity; it is still FEDERALLY CRIMINAL negligence, incompetence, and stupidity, Right? Books will be thrown at those responsible, yes?

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    Those who fail to understand communication protocols, are doomed to repeat them over port 80.
  3. Re:This is a classic case of... by Jerf · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So, today the Bush administration is brilliant, and they came up with a genius plan to make email go away, while appearing incompetent.

    Someone be sure to send me the talking points when we're back to "The Bush administration is staffed by morons", k?

    (Such amazing IQ swings we see. Genius! Moronic! Brilliant! Ape-like! Bing-bam-boom! Sometimes several flip-flops in one day! One would almost wonder if the problem lies in the observers, rather than the observed.)

    "Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by incompetence." I think "incompetence" covers it just fine; I'm sure this is hardly the first migration screwed up this way.

  4. Re:This is a classic case of... by Thing+1 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So, today the Bush administration is brilliant, and they came up with a genius plan to make email go away, while appearing incompetent.

    Well, yeah, except: what happened to the final backup tapes of the first installation?

    Since it's the last backup of that system it should definitely be marked for retention. And surely, as they realized that they had a retention issue with the new system, they would have ensured to maintain those tapes due to the Presidential Records Act that Bush himself amended?

    Also, doesn't it concern anyone that he changed the law regarding what communications can be released and when on Nov 1 2001, just three weeks after 9/11? Coincidence and circumstantial, perhaps, but concerning...

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    I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.