Congressman Waxman to the white courtesy phone

Time for some hearings on MNF-I cybersecurity.

Col. Steven A. Boylan, the Public Affairs Officer and personal spokesman for Gen. David G. Petraeus, claimed that he did not send an e-mail with his address as return address . The e-mail was received by Glenn Greenwald from an MNF-I IP address.

"Peter Boothe, a PhD student in the University of Oregon Computer Science Department, specializing in Internet topology, has published an analysis of the email tracking information and "conclude[d] that these two emails [the "fake" one and the real one] were written by the same person. Or, someone has hacked into the military infrastructure in an effort to discredit this one Colonel by sending cranky emails to bloggers. But one of the two, certainly."

Thus it seems that there is evidence that someone can hack into the military infrastructure. In a follow up post Greenwald explains how alarming this possibility is "If someone really is able to replicate emails from high-ranking military officials in Iraq, think about what a serious breach that is. Can the fabricators also send emails to commanders in the field or to political decision-makers in Washington?"

Seems to me that congress should investigate this risk. If MNF-I assures the committee that their servers are secure and that it is all a false alarme, because Boyland himself wrote the e-mail, Boyland can be held responsible for wasting the committee's time.

I smell blood in the water.

The take home lesson is don't mess with Glenn Greewald, ever.