What's At Risk When Using Your Personal Email Account For Work?
DETROIT (WWJ) - Cyber security is a growing topic of concern since finding out that former Secretary of State Clinton has been running her own email accounts.
University of Michigan Computer Science professor J. Alex Halderman tells WWJ's Russ McNamara about the inherent security risks involved.
"Frankly, as soon as you're hosting your mail outside of the agency which is presumably tightly controlled and monitored systems you are creating a range of new security risks," says Halderman.
"Information that might be very sensitive is leaving the govt facilities so potentially that's going to be eavesdropped on by criminals, by foreign governments. Beyond that there is the possibility that someone could impersonate Clinton in an email within government."
Keeping computer networks secure is no easy task - that's why this revelation is coming as a surprise within the cyber community.
"It's when you are sending it to other people across the internet at different services that a lot of that security starts to weaken - that's another reason why Clinton hosting her email at a personal server was a danger from a security perspective. Had the email been contained entirely within servers of the state department - there would have been much less risk," says Halderman.
Halderman says there could have been widespread security issues - both here and abroad - if someone had gained access to Clinton's accounts and sent out emails with malicious software like viruses or Trojan horses.
