X204 Project

With the most recent presidential election, people know that Hilary Clinton was almost the first female President of the United States. However, she is not only known for being the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate. Others know her as the woman who was the source of an email scandal that took the country by storm and destroyed lives. The scandal was even made into a movie, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, which became a hit in 2016. Some members of the Democratic Party may give you excuses for why this scandal happened, although the movie may not mention her name, it still illustrates how dramatic and severe the incident was. This well-known scandal took place while Clinton was Secretary of State and decided to use a private email account instead of the already provided government email address. To some, it may not seem like an issue that she made the decision to use a private email account. Clinton choosing to use a private email address makes all of her emails unable to be tracked and put on record. Clinton, being familiar with the rules of the political world, knew that this was the case if she chose to use a personal email account. She was fully aware that she would be able to send and receive untraceable messages. She then used this personal email account to exchange messages regarding the attack on the soldiers in Benghazi.

After the incident, the government ordered that they be given access to her personal email account. However, Clinton had deleted some emails before giving the government access to her account. Emails that she claims were simply personal, but no one is able to confirm what was on those now deleted emails. The personal email account has also been traced to what happened in Benghazi. If you are interested in what exactly happened in Benghazi, I highly suggest watching the movie, it’s fantastic. Just keep in mind that it is a movie, and you may need to fact check some of the things that were filmed.

Now, back to Clinton and how she allegedly created a mess. There were emails sent to Clinton regarding the attack on US soldiers located in Benghazi. After reading the information she was given in the emails that were sent to her, Clinton did nothing to protect the soldiers. Since then, there have been allegations about what emails were actually sent and what she did about it.

From a communication security standpoint, businesses can learn that they need to highly encourage, and even force, the use of business emails when interacting with others related to the work place. It is called a private email account for a reason, it is meant for personal use. When a person is employed somewhere they are given a specific email address that is intended for use. Just as my academic advisor told me that she would only communicate with me through my school email account, that is how all corporations should conduct business. They should only communicate with each other using their business’s email address. As Clinton demonstrated, it is far too risky to not be able to document each interaction that happens, especially within the political world. Businesses can learn that in order to decrease the number of miscommunications and court cases, it is best for everyone if an employee only uses their work email in the workplace.