Cybersecurity, and particularly emails and secure servers, became such a cultural conversation during the 2016 presidential election that it feels permanently embedded in the public psyche. No one rallied about national security risks and classified information like the GOP. That is why it’s painfully ironic that, as Christopher Dickey reports at The Daily Beast, Nikki Haley, Donald Trump’s former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, seemingly sent confidential information over a system actually meant for unclassified material in 2017, when North Korea tested a ballistic missile that possibly could have reached Alaska.
Dickey reports that Haley forgot her password for the classified communication system. She did not use a private email account to send the messages in question, but if there’s a risky time to send sensitive information over the system not meant for it, a potential international crisis is probably it.
Haley was sending confidential material on her BlackBerry 10 and using a system designated for unclassified information, Dickey reports. She was reportedly hurrying into her office and working with aides to prepare a statement on the missile tests. “Let’s clean this up,” she sent to her top aides. “Pretty this up for me,” she wrote. Then: “Can’t find my password for the high side,” she added, presumably to explain why she was using the less-secure server.
Why didn’t she update her password and use the appropriate server? Who knows? Her actions as reported constitute a serious potential security risk.
Dickey’s source for the information on Haley is American Oversight, a Washington, D.C., nonpartisan, nonprofit watchdog that focuses on government ethics. American Oversight obtained the correspondence by means of a request under the Freedom of Information Act.
Of course, Haley isn’t the only person in the Trump administration to have password problems. As covered previously at Daily Kos, for example, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani reportedly forgot the password to his iPhone one week after becoming a White House cybersecurity adviser. Irony aside, the real problem is that he handled it by going to an Apple Store and having an employee unlock his phone. As Daily Kos also previously reported, Ivanka Trump has sent hundreds of emails from her personal email account to conduct official government business.
What does this mean for Haley now? It’s unlikely to help her rumored presidential run, that’s for sure.