I can barely spell IT, but even I know that emails first of all don't reside on computers, but on servers, which are backed up regularly and the data is kept for a long time.
Do you think the IRS would take the chance of tax payers information to disappear and not be able to tell whether people filed their taxes or not?
The Republicans should subpoena the email servers of the IRS. This claim that if someone's office computer crashes, all emails would be lost is totally preposterous, but even on FoxNews, they are not interviewing IT professionals who could explain in plain language that first of all emails are stored in servers and no way would they only be kept for six months in any halfway decent company, especially not in a government organization such as IRS -- they are still talking about her computer crashing -- it doesn't matter! Why isn't someone asking for a subpoena for the IRS servers?!
I just have Hannity on - and he is at least talking about servers, but still not explaining clearly -- and some so-called computer expert who is claiming it's quite possible -- how much money is he getting from the Dems -- maybe they just had "bad policies". !!!
And not just emails, computers are always backed up too!!!
IT Professionals please comment!!!
“Dude,That Was Like Four-Years Ago”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Their claim is that the backup tapes were recycled every 6 months, which is an absurdly short period of time. Especially from the IRS which requires taxpayers to keep records for 7 years!
I imagine White House spokesman Jay Carney would be able to explain this in technical terms, but I'll give it a try in the spirit of their story. Sure, emails are backed up "in the cloud" but with Global Warming (discovered by Nobel Prize winner Al Gore) we're running short on clouds, and all of Lois Lerner's emails evaporated. It's George Bush's fault for not cracking down on CO2 emissions when we had a chance.
The drives and servers are gone. And a bolt of lightning struck “The Cloud”.
They’re gone.
;-)
Congress needs to subpoena ALL the IT people that could or did work on the server system and put the fear of jail in them.
Call the NSA, they have copies.....
I have a sister(the youngest in our family)who refers to her 5-siblings as”Idiot-Breeders”!!!No SH*T!!!!!!!!!!!!!
nothing new for this administration national archives lost part of obamas mothers passport records then they selectively lost part of pertinent travel records.
how many people are involved in covering for this crime syndicate?
If this turns out to be false, BOTH Lerner and Carney need to be in jail!!!!!
Just start charging them with Contempt of Congress. That’ll put a fire under their rear ends answering their questions.
To the extent that the emails pertain to evidence in criminal actions, law enforcement (and not “IT professionals”) should be tasked to recover the information, or, at the absolute least, to secure the evidence. That the chief law enforcement officer of the land failed to do this is telling, at a number of levels.
What they are talking about is physically impossible. I worked on those systems, and there is no local data storage other than cache on a hard drive. The data is held in multiple locations and moved offsite. It is a felony to destroy the data unless ordered to do so under a HSPD, and the data can not be detroyed without Presidential authorization at about 5 difference levels of Management and Sysadmins.
What this means is that the entire Federal Government top to bottom is corrupted. No Sysadmin would do this of his own accord, or else he’d spend the rest of his life in pound me in the ass Federal Prison- not to mention never working again in IT.
Why didn't they tell Congress months ago? My guess is that they have been feverishly erasing them from the backup servers.
BTW...did any press person ask Carney about backups?
I am an I.T. professional and have been for 30 years. I will GUARANTEE those emails are recoverable.
The IRS uses what is called an Exchange server. EVERYTHING that uses Outlook is stored in an .OST file on a SERVER. In the case of the IRS it is almost with certainty that server is located within a data center. That server and probably hundreds of others are backed up with multiple backups AND in other locations.
If the hard drive in a users PC crashes, burns, stolen or whatever, you simply plug in a new one, reconfigure Outlook to grab the .OST file from the server and magically all of your email, folders, contact list, calendar, etc,etc,etc, come back to life on the PC.
Now, these servers are configured with RAID drives that mirror each other. If one goes bad the others keep running. All you do is plug in a new drive and it mirrors again. Plus the servers are mirrored as well. It’s called FAULT TOLERANT.
Even if somebody destroyed the actual .OST files and the backups from the servers. The RECIPIENTS still have those emails and...they are on servers as well.
I would have EVERY computer, tablet, smart phone and any other devices seized from Lerner and EVERYBODY in her contact list as a start. Then I would seize the servers and subpoena EVERY person involved in the administration of those servers. Answers would come swiftly if facing jail time.
The IRS is a criminal organization so you have to think like a criminal. Thing is, they always screw up somewhere.
Maybe they should jail Lois Lerner until they show up.
Does anyone one know what company the IRS uses for their email gateway?