As many have heard, the C.I.A. chief David Petraeus had his secret affair revealed with his Gmail account. Although he was not being blatantly obvious with this affair, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was able to determine this scandal by secretly going through his emails.

As found on biography.com, U.S. Army General David Petraeus was highly respected as a “brilliant thinker and leader.” He is known as the man who saved America in Iraq, along with being a potential president in the future. However, people are now questioning not only his ethics but also his ideas and achievements. Although many people of high stature have had scandals before, many are still respected because of their great influence on society. However, we must wonder if the same will happen to David Petraeus and his scandalous affair with Paula Broadwell.

According to Wikipedia, Paula Broadwell is an American writer, and known as an academic and anti-terrorism professional. Paula was the valedictorian of her high school class, graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point majoring in political geography, and earned a master’s degree in international security from the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies. She served in both the United States Army and the United States Army Reserve. Previously, the FBI offered her a job due to her qualifications and experience, but decided to attend Harvard University.

Paula Broadwell met David Petraeus when he spoke at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. As a graduate student, she was interested in him and his work. For her doctoral dissertation, she included a case study of his leadership. Later, she also co-authored All In: The Education of General David Petraeus, a biography of David Petraeus. The scandal’s revealing started with anonymous threatening and harrassing emails sent to Jill Kelley. Kelley contacted the FBI to trace these emails and Broadwell was found on the other side. The jist of the emails were that Broadwell suspected Kelley of having an affair with General David Petraeus, a friend of Kelley’s.

David Petraeus Mistress Afair Cheating Scandal
Source: lalate.com

How can you ensure that your privacy is kept private? The Yahoo article Trying to Keep Your E-Mails Secret When the C.I.A. Chief Couldn’t gives the public tips on how to keep “skeletons in your digital closet.”

This article was written by Nicole Perlroth, a technology reporter for The New York Times. She typically covers topics of cybersecurity and privacy for both the Bits blog and for print. She previously was the deputy editor at Forbes, and covered venture capital and Web Start-ups. Along with all this, she produced the Midas List, Forbes’s annual ranking of top tech deal makers. Although she mainliy focuses on topics regarding technology, her range of interest and articles are diverse, from food, bioethics, and to education. Her articles may earn extra credit especially as a graduate of Princeton University and Stanford University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

For simplicity, here is a list of pointers that are laid out:

1. Know Your Adversary: Be aware of the person or people who are attempting to find your secret information.
2. Hide Your Location: This can be done by masking the I.P. address using Tor, or using a virtual private network.
3. Go Off the Record: Choose the “off the record” feature on Google Talk
4. Encrypt Your Messages: GPG, an e-mail encryption service, can help pretect secrets from eavesdroppers.
5. Set Your Self-Destruct Timer: Use 10 Minute Mail, a service that allows users to open an email & send a message, & the address will self-destruct in 10 minutes.
6. Drop the Draft Folder Idea: Saving e-mails in a shared draft folder is not safe and should be avoided.
7. Use Only a Designated Device: Use a separate, designated device for sensitive communication.
8. Get an Alibi: Find an explanation for why you are hiding something.
9. Don’t Mess Up: It is easy to make one little mistake that will end with a large consequence. Don’t forget to follow these rules or you may be subject to these consequences.

It seems like a lot of precautions to take to ensure privacy, regardless of the content being secured. However, if one of these steps are overlooked, then it is quite easy for someone who is looking for information to find it.

What is scary to most is that people do not realize that once anything is said over the Internet, it is logged and accessible. The only safe way of making sure that secrets are kept secure is by not saying anything at all.

Overall I find this article and source to be very reliable. Although many of these pointers may be obvious, we may not be consciously thinking about them. Actually reading these and comparing them to how we live our lives definitely influences us on how and where we interact with others.