Penn President Amy Gutmann has stored thousands of work-related emails, that could have been potentially compromised, on private servers, The Daily Pennsylvanian has discovered // Andrew Fischer | Best Teaser and Banner Maker Ever
Penn President Amy Gutmann has stored thousands of work-related emails on a private server, a Daily Pennsylvanian investigation found this week.
The server is stored in the basement of the President’s House at 3812 Walnut St. and was first installed at the request of former Penn President Judith Rodin, a source who helped install the server said.
Gutmann has at least two work-related email addresses, one in her role as Penn president and the other as Chair of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, yet she chose to conduct close to 90 percent of her work-related communication on a private email server with the domain name “Penn_HBIC.”
The DP first became aware of Gutmann’s private server after a Freedom of Information request for her government-related emails came up with literally nothing.
When University Spokesperson Maurice “MoHend” Henderson was contacted in November to explain the lack of any emails from Gutmann’s government account, he replied, “President Gutmann straight up has a private email server. No use trying to hide it. Happy searching!”
Gutmann’s Penn emails were not readily available for release, the spokesperson said.
The existence of a private server was only brought to public attention after a former employee in the President’s Office sent a docket of private emails to a DP editor from Gutmann’s “Penn_HBIC” server. Numbering in the thousands, the emails show that Gutmann repeatedly used her private server to send information specific to her University and government roles.
Rob Feiner, a New York-based photographer and computer security expert, said Gutmann’s private server was “about as secure as a half-eaten cheeseburger left on the Jersey Shore boardwalk for seagulls to eat.”
“It’s like Gutmann left the keys to her Rolls-Royce to my daughter Lauren, who can’t drive,” Feiner said. “Her email couldn’t have been less secure. Even her LinkedIn account could have been hacked.”
Many emails were of a sensitive nature, including discussion of topics ranging from controversy over hoverboards to admissions quotas for students from a certain geographical area in suburban New York.
Gutmann did not respond to multiple requests for comment beyond emailing a GIF of a laughing baby...from her private server.
The source who installed Gutmann’s server said she inherited the setup from Rodin, who originally implemented it upon advice from Huma Abedin, the vice chairwoman of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
The seeming similarity of the situation to Clinton’s, while untimely, does not appear related. There is no record of communication between the former Secretary of State and Gutmann, though Gutmann’s predecessor, Judith Rodin, was a close acquaintance of Clinton’s confidante, Abedin.
Editor’s Note: This article is part of The Daily Pennsylvanian’s annual joke issue. Read more about the history of joke issue here.
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