Clinton’s email troubles show value of IT pros

By

Michael Hardy

CLEVELAND, OH – AUGUST 27: Democratic presidential candidate and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks to guests gathered for a campaign meeting on the campus of Case Western Reserve University on August 27, 2015 in Cleveland, Ohio. Clinton made her first official campaign stop in Ohio. (Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

Hilary Clinton’s unfolding email scandal shows the importance of involving IT professionals in technology decisions from the start, according to an Associated Press article.

Clinton, the assumed frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, is losing ground in early primary states to challenger Sen. Bernie Sanders, in part because voters are increasingly less likely to trust her, according to polls. The former Secretary of State kept work-related emails on a personal server and may have sent or received classified information without observing proper security protocols.

“Every company today is at the mercy of getting the technology right,” says John Challenger, CEO of human resources firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas in New York, quoted in the article.

Clinton had hired former State Department IT employee Bryan Pagliano to set up and maintain the server, and he has been swept up in the ongoing investigation. Despite Pagliano’s role, consultant Matt McDonald with Hamilton Place Strategies, suggested that the trouble Clinton is experiencing is an example of what can happen when “people who don’t have any measure of technological literacy are making decisions about technology.”