IT Trade groups don’t believe IRS email’s lost

Good day all. I hope you enjoyed yesterdays post, “99 words for Boobs.” Well it’s a new week and time for some old scandals, only they aren’t that old. As you know, the Internal Revenue Service claims that seven hard drives containing all the emails that Congress is looking for were lost when the drives crashed.

As you know, if you are one of the three people who read my blog, I work in the IT field and have said that losing those emails is virtually impossible, and that having seven hard drives in computers used by “People of interest” crashing irrecoverably was garbage. Well, I’m not the only one saying this. The International Association of Information Technology Asset Managers (IAITAM) is also calling this into question. Here are a few details from the Weekly Standard:

Were Lois Lerner’s allegedly lost emails actually destroyed? An Ohio-based trade association, the International Association of Information Technology Asset Managers (IAITAM), isn’t so sure, and they don’t find IRS commissioner Koskinen’s explanation of their loss very plausible.

That is a polite way of saying that Koskinen’s excuses were pure, unadulterated bovine droppings. So who is IAITAM anyway?

IAITAM administers internationally accepted certifications for information technology professionals.

I’ll state for the record I had not heard of this group. I’ve bookmarked it for later review and passed it along to the Angry Systems Administrator for his use. So, what do they think of the excuses handed out by the Internal Revenue Service?

According to the group’s standards, if Lerner’s supposedly malfunctioning hardware was properly destroyed, there would be records of it. Dr. Barbara Rembiesa, president of IAITAM, questions whether there is documentation of the destruction of the files. Who performed the work, says Rembiesa, is important because not all IT professionals are IAITAM certified.

For instance, I’m not certified and neither is the Angry Systems Administrator. I have been looking at their web site to see what it takes to be certified. (It isn’t cheap) In any case, I’ve had to destroy hard drives in the past. Usually this involved erasing the data with a utility application and then the physical destruction of the drive, usually involving dismantling it and tossing the platters into a microwave over. Then I would physically destroy the remains, usually by boring lots of holes into it and then cutting the disks up. Apparently IAITAM has a very specific list of things to do when you dispose of hardware. To continue with Dr. Rembiesa’s comments:

“The notion that these emails just magically vanished makes no sense whatsoever. That is not how IT asset management at major businesses and government institutions works in this country. When the hard drive in question was destroyed, the IRS should have called in an accredited IT Asset Destruction (ITAD) professional or firm to complete that process, which requires extensive documentation, official signoffs, approvals, and signatures of completion. If this was done, there would be records. If this was not done, this is the smoking gun that proves the drive or drives were destroyed improperly – or not at all.”

Oh I do think they have been scrapped by now, but I doubt they went through the normal process as listed by Dr. Rembiesa. As to the emails being “Gone forever,” that is utter crap on so many levels it’s not funny. I’ve been chatting with people who administer Exchange servers. (I’ve taken classes in it, but haven’t done any real work on Exchange since version 5.5) To utterly destroy the emails in question is, while not impossible, very difficult and requires someone with full access to dig into the datastores and other parts of the Exchange servers and who knows the systems inside and out. I actually learned a few things.

The Microsoft Exchange servers, and I certainly don’t know which version they’re on, are designed specifically NOT to lose email. There are many safeguards built in to protect people’s email. Now it is possible that somewhere out there, someone has a utility that can go on and essentially do a “Search and Destroy” mission on specific email boxes. However, that is not something you would get from Ivan’s Hacker Bazaar. A tool that specific would require huge resources to write and maintain. The only people who have those resources would be national intelligences services. In other words, spy agencies.

There is no way agencies such as the CIA or the NSA are going to hand those tools over to the IRS or even the FBI without a direct order from really high levels in the Government. (Like the White House). I don’t see the Chinese, Russians or Israeli’s handing them over to the IRS either. If it turns out that specific sectors in the data have been “lost” and not others, then you can safely assume that there is a conspiracy and it is at the highest levels of government. (That would be the SCoaMF, Obama, himself)

Since I don’t think such tools would have been run, I believe the data still exists and can be dug out of the IRS’s Exchange servers. I don’t see how Congress can get the IRS to fork over the data. It will require a special prosecutor with either a subpena or a search warrant. While Obama is in the White House, there won’t be a prosecutor assigned. I think it’s going to take a low level IT flunky coming up with the information and deep throating it to Issa’s investigation. This might happen if the bill Reps. Bill Flores and Louie Gohmert are proposing actually passes. According to The Blaze:

Reps. Bill Flores and Louie Gohmert proposed the Identify and Recover Sent Emails Act, or the IRS Act. In addition to the big $1 million bounty, the bill would offer $500,000 to anyone with information that can be used to prosecute officials involved in destroying the emails. All reward money would be taken from the budget of the IRS. In addition, the bill would cut all IRS salaries by 20 percent until the Lerner emails are found.

Yep, nothing like cold hard cash offered to the IT people to dig up the missing messages. They certainly don’t owe the IRS managers anything and to be honest, they’ve been put in serious legal jeopardy thanks to managers like Lerner and Koskinen. My bet is those emails would be found within hours of the bills becoming law and going into effect. That and cutting the salaries of everyone in the agency. (Which they should do anyway)

One other thing that Congress should go after are the actual helpdesk records. I have no idea what the IRS uses to manage their trouble tickets, but I do know that those records are almost never purged. Why? Because IT people use those records to see if a user is having the same problem over and over again as well as using the system as a knowledge base. I suspect that whoever started this coverup may have forgotten about the helpdesk. Talking to those people will probably provide a lot of answers. You won’t find a more cynical bunch anywhere on earth then someone who answers the phones and has to deal with utter lusers and idiots. I speak from personal experience.

Thatisall

~The Angry Webmaster~

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