How dysfunctional is the State Department and Obama administration if the Secretary of State, Chief of Staff, and Deputy Chief of Staff skip IT training at the State Department??? Are they just above it all and think they don’t need to do the training? The answer is…YES.

“Cybersecurity experts say Clinton, Mills, and Abedin should have undergone IT security training at State, and that their apparent failure to do so is part of a systemic problem.”

HILLARYABEDIN

The State Department has no record of former Secretary Hillary Clinton or her two top aides receiving IT security training while Clinton led the department, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

In response to a Freedom of Information request filed by the nonprofit Competitive Enterprise Institute in March, State said it could not locate any record of Clinton, chief of staff Cheryl Mills, or deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin undergoing any sort of IT security training.

“One former, senior executive branch personnel official contacted me to point out the requirement that appointees take this training, and that if Mses. Clinton, Abedin or Mills had deigned to follow the law, a record of this would exist,” explained CEI senior fellow Chris Horner, who filed the FOIA request.

“He also noted, however, that if anyone was to turn up their noses and refuse the training—and be permitted to—these are the folks. We now know this to be the case,” Horner said in an email.

The request also asked for “all separation documents … completed or submitted” by Clinton, Mills, or Abedin. State returned no responsive documents to that request.

The department previously stated that it had no record of Clinton signing such separation documents, designed to ensure that former employees do not retain confidential information after their departure. State’s reply appears to confirm that neither Clinton nor her top aides submitted those documents.

Cybersecurity experts say Clinton, Mills, and Abedin should have undergone IT security training at State, and that their apparent failure to do so is part of a systemic problem.

“She should have done it, but the data point that she did not is sadly unsurprising,” said Steve Bucci, the director of the Heritage Foundation’s Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign and National Security Policy.

“It is unfortunately not uncommon for people who think a lot of themselves (this can go way below the secretary level) to say ‘I’m too busy/important/smart to actually do this stuff that common workers are required to do,’” he said in an email.

Bucci, a former civilian Pentagon cybersecurity official and director of the of the IBM Institute for Advanced Security, said that if Clinton and her aides had undergone IT training, there would likely be documentation confirming it available through a FOIA request.

“Federal regulations require everyone to do that sort of training, everyone,” he wrote. “If a senior executive, government or civilian, does not take security training they are making a huge mistake.”

Read more: WFB

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