The US Vice President Mike Pence’s personal AOL account was hacked

Pierluigi Paganini March 04, 2017

The US Vice President Mike Pence’s personal AOL account was hacked, once again politics were breached due to wrong security posture.

Pence has been harshly criticized after the discovery that he used his personal AOL account for Government issues.

In 2016 attacker who compromised the Pence’s account sent out emails to his contacts saying he had been mugged in the Philippwrongand needed money, a classic scam scheme.

The emails sent from the Pence’s personal AOL account were obtained by the Indianapolis Star under a Freedom of Information Act.

“Vice President Mike Pence reportedly used a private email account to conduct public business, including homeland security matters, while he was governor of Indiana. Records of the emails were obtained by IndyStar through a public records request.” reads the article published by the Indystar.

“Emails released to IndyStar in response to a public records request show Pence communicated via his personal AOL account with top advisers on topics ranging from security gates at the governor’s residence to the state’s response to terror attacks across the globe. In one email, “

Pence's personal AOL account

Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump (R) points to Indiana Governor Mike Pence (L) before addressing the crowd during a campaign stop at the Grand Park Events Center in Westfield, Indiana, July 12, 2016. REUTERS/John Sommers II – RTSHNAG

The Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb’s office provided the media outlet a 29 pages document containing Pence’s email messages.

The emails include sensitive communications between Pence when was serving as the Indiana governor and members of his staff. The messages concern terrorist arrests, terror attacks in Canada, and much more.

“Similar to previous governors, during his time as Governor of Indiana, Mike Pence maintained a state email account and a personal email account.” replied a spokesman for Pence working at the office in Washington.”As Governor, Mr. Pence fully complied with Indiana law regarding email use and retention. Government emails involving his state and personal accounts are being archived by the state consistent with Indiana law, and are being managed according to Indiana’s Access to Public Records Act.” 

The embarrassing aspect of the story is that during the US Presidential election campaign Pence attacked Hillary Clinton for misusing a private email server for work while Secretary of State.

Fortunately for US Vice President, Pence’s account did not handle classified material as a governor and US law allowed him this promiscuous use of his personal email.

Anyway, some of the emails in the Pence’s account weren’t disclosed because “the state considers them confidential and too sensitive to release to the public.”

[adrotate banner=”9″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – Pence’s personal AOL account, data breach)



you might also like

leave a comment