You’ve got Mail. No you don’t…
Hillary Clinton is always in the news. Lately, it is not for anything positive. Clinton is battling accusations of improperly using a private email server and email for she and her staff AND using same for sending and receiving classified information.
Clinton knew it was improper and took extraordinary steps to wipe as much of the proof of this as she could. Clinton”wiped her server clean” and permanently deleted all e-mails from the personal server.
Doing this is bad advice if you are Secretary of State, subject to pending litigation, or are aware of a Subpoena Duces Tecum requesting said information.
However, it is great advice if you are a lying cheater. Deleting emails, wiping a server is just smart if there is incriminating evidence in said emails and on said server. In fact, it’s dumb to not delete and wipe. It sets yourself up to be held accountable for your actions. It could prove that you have lied under oath. It could lead to all types of legal ramifications, monetary penalties and potentially cost you your freedom.
This week alone we have learned that one should destroy their cell phone, a la Tom Brady, NOT have an account with AshleyMadison (or, if you do, have a fake account) and one should have a private email server, and when convenient delete those emails and wipe the server!
Matthew Thompson is a Family Law Attorney in Mississippi and is advising his clients if you are contemplating any of the above that your first visit should be to a good Criminal Defense Attorney and the next visit should be to your Priest.
Follow the blog: #BowTieLawyer Visit the website: #Thompson Law Firm You may also contact Matthew with your family law matter or question at (601) 850-8000 or Matthew@bowtielawyer.ms
(601) 850-8000 - - BowTieLawyer.MS 
Deleting & wiping is good advice. Better advice includes noting that the method by which wiping is done yields different results in the ability for subsequent forensic retrieval of the data. Hillary’s “cloth” method probably won’t do much good and simply reformatting disks won’t do ya much better. If you’re requirements are for at least minimal data security you might investigate proper processes/software for rewriting blank or random data to cover or mask traces of deleted/wiped files. Even after going this route, one should consider complete physical nuclear destruction of data storage hardware since even advanced data scrubbing and shredding tools have been overcome in certain instances. Lastly, if it’s email (or really any data saved on any networked machine) remember that messages (data) are sent through many many many servers on internet or even internally to reach their destination and each sever will temporarily cache (or down right duplicate and store forever) copies which may be able to be found later regardless of your own data destruction attempts. Encryption of messages/data with PGP or other security and using SSL (https in browsers, sftp for FTP connects, etc as needed depending on type of network protocol connection) for your devices to connect to servers, routers, hubs, etcetera will help at least make it more difficult for intermediaries to harvest info from your data. But not impossible. Moral of story? Same as always, weigh the costs and benefits of your actions and choices and of sending or storing data about such digitally. If you fear the data detailing your choices and actions being exposed, don’t send or store it…. Or better…. Avoid making bad choices and acting badly!!!