Cloud Computing: Petraeus investigation highlights fight over digital surveillance laws
November 14, 2012
Grazed from NextGov. Author: Josh Smith.
The FBI’s digital detective work not only brought down CIA Director David Petraeus, it also provided rare insights into the bureau’s latest methods for tracking people across cyberspace and the fight over government surveillance. Petraeus resigned suddenly on Friday, citing an affair that was uncovered after FBI agents followed an electronic trail that eventually linked the former Army general to his biographer, Paula Broadwell. The explosive combination of sex and spies was only embellished by the details of how federal officials stumbled across the liaison.
“Anyone more alarmed by FBI snooping through a journalist’s emails & investigating the sex life of CIA Dir. than who Petraeus was schtupping?” New Yorker Washington correspondent Ryan Lizza tweeted on Sunday. “FBI SPIED ON CIA DIRECTOR, WOMAN; EMAILS?” blared a headline on theDrudge Report…
The first round of e-mails was provided by a Florida woman who complained to the FBI after receiving anonymous threatening messages. According to The Wall Street Journal, investigators used “metadata footprints left by the e-mails” to determine where the messages were sent from and link the e-mails to Broadwell. Officials also checked what other e-mail accounts had been accessed from the same computer address, according to The New York Times…
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