Pentagon chief used personal email account for government business

Defense Secretary Ash Carter used his personal email account for government business for nearly a year, until December 2015, when news reports revealed the practice, according to hundreds of Carter emails released by the Defense Department, the Associated Press is reporting.

The 1,336 pages of emails and attachments from Carter's personal account were released late Friday in response to Freedom of Information Act requests by The Associated Press and other news organizations. None contained classified information, and most pertained to routine business such as scheduling and logistics.

The Pentagon has long banned the use of personal email for official business. Carter's use of his personal email account, starting when he took office in February 2015, was especially remarkable given the burst of public criticism that followed disclosures in March that Hillary Clinton had used a private email account exclusively to conduct government business while she was secretary of state.

When the New York Times was first to report Carter's use of a personal email account, on Dec. 17, Carter aides said his actions were a mistake and that he had quit the practice.

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The career death of Rear Adm. Brian Losey, the Navy SEAL leader being forced to retire after his promotion was blocked in the Senate, marks the most public punishment ever at the top rank of the elite SEALs, who are known for running below the radar with their combat missions and internal business.

Even more tension between Congress and the SEALs may be looming. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, said this week that he will oppose the nomination of Losey’s replacement, Rear Adm. Tim Szymanski.

Hunter told The San Diego Union-Tribune that he has concerns about the incoming SEAL commander’s past performance on contracting, training and acquisitions. He didn’t elaborate on the alleged problems.

Szymanski couldn’t be reached for comment Friday.

Losey, who leads the Coronado-based Naval Special Warfare Command, was nominated for a second star in 2011. Then the Pentagon’s inspector general spent multiple years investigating him on complaints of retaliation when he was serving in Europe — and eventually found wrongdoing. But Navy leaders disagreed with that conclusion and were set to give Losey his long-delayed promotion before the Senate intervened.

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Stars and Stripes is reporting the Marine Corps is standing up a new unit of cyberwarriors as the global battlefield evolves to include more and more computer networks.

The Marine Corps Cyberspace Warfare Group was activated Friday in a ceremony at Fort George G. Meade, Md., a Marine Corps statement said. Its mission is to man, train and equip Marine cyberspace mission teams to perform both defensive and offensive operations in support of U.S. Cyber Command and Marine Forces Cyberspace Command.

The unit has “a few” cyber teams up and running, the statement said; however, it won’t be fully operational until sometime next year.

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An Iranian charged with hacking the computer system that controlled a New York dam used a readily available Google search process to identify the vulnerable system, according to people familiar with the federal investigation, the Wall Street Journal is reporting.

The process, known as “Google dorking,” isn’t as simple as an ordinary online search. Yet anyone with a computer and Internet access can perform it with a few special techniques. Federal authorities say it is increasingly used by hackers to identify computer vulnerabilities throughout the U.S.

Hamid Firoozi, who was charged Thursday by federal prosecutors, stumbled onto the Bowman Avenue Dam in Rye Brook, N.Y., in 2013 by using the technique to identify an unprotected computer that controlled the dam’s sluice gates and other functions, said people briefed on the investigation. Once he identified the dam, he allegedly hacked his way in using other methods.

“He was just trolling around, and Google-dorked his way onto the dam,” one person familiar with the investigation said.

This story was originally published March 28, 2016 at 11:21 AM with the headline "Pentagon chief used personal email account for government business."