The IRS Had a Contract With an Email Backup Company

Here is the Federal Mandate Document on the Legal Requirements of Federal Agencies and email.

NARA Bulletin 2013-03

September 9, 2013

TO: Heads of Federal Agencies

SUBJECT: Guidance for agency employees on the management of Federal records, including email accounts, and the protection of Federal records from unauthorized removal

EXPIRATION DATE: September 30, 2016

www.archives.gov...

It's not a long read, this Federal Directive...one page...just do it.

Excerpt from directive...

4. Can email messages be Federal records?
Yes, email messages created or received in the course of official business are Federal records if they meet the definition mentioned above, and agency employees must manage them accordingly. Under NARA’s current policy and regulations, defined in 36 CFR 1236.22(a), agencies must issue instructions to staff on the identification, management, retention, and disposition of email messages determined to be Federal records. Employees who create a significant amount of permanent email records should consult with their records officer to determine the most effective way to manage them, including using NARA’s recent “Capstone” guidance, NARA Bulletin 2013-02, entitled “Guidance on a New Approach to Managing Email Records.”

5. What are agencies’ and agency employees’ recordkeeping responsibilities when the use of personal email accounts is authorized?
While agency employees should not generally use personal email accounts to conduct official agency business, there may be times when agencies authorize the use of personal email accounts, such as in emergency situations when Federal accounts are not accessible or when an employee is initially contacted through a personal account. In these situations, agency employees must ensure that all Federal records sent or received on personal email systems are captured and managed in accordance with agency recordkeeping practices. Agency policies and procedures must also ensure compliance with other statutes and obligations, such as FOIA and discovery.
www.archives.gov...

This about puts a tombstone on the LIES the IRS is shoving down our throats.

Des

Could you imagine being Sonasoft right now... Talk about a rock and a hard place... If they stick with the Obama/Lerner story then their company loses all credibility and likely goes out of business, especially seeing that they are pre-IPO or the alternative you hand over the emails to the congressional review board and you are American hero's (in a way) but you have pissed off a small (maybe large) group of powerful people who may or may not start targeting you...

I see this getting really interesting fast....

originally posted by: neo96

The agency said that emails stored on dead drives were lost forever because its email backup tapes were recycled every six months,

Nobody uses tape anymore.

It is akin to the floppy disk.

Lies,lies,and damn lies.

How much more proof do people need ?

Sorry but here in backward Canada, we still use backup tapes. I'm pretty sure there are some if not lots in the US too. It's the cheapest way to store a lot of data, and IBM loves tape drives It's also easy to handle and ideal for transporting to another location in case of a disaster.

With that said, destroying emails every 6months seems a little stupid and not probable. There is data that can be recycled every 6months or so but not emails nor security logs. So i call this bullsh**.

Peace out.

a reply to: bigwig22

BAM

exactly.

Tape drives still work just fine, they are slow as *expletive deleted* but they are rather reliable - and yes you have a stack of tapes you cycle every 6 months but its not like you are taking those emails off the servers (which are almost certainly backed up in the conventional backup server with a huge stack of HDD's way).

total garbage from an organisation of that scale. And if they really did lose those emails, they need a new backup guy..... seriously.... they are the bloody IRS!!!

Even if they did manage to "loose the data" it would take such a large fail that a large number of people in the IRS and any contractor they had would have to be sacked.

It's a freaken email not a word document. That means it has copies or part of copies all over other computer and untold number of servers. Even if the only hard drive with the data on it went belly up there is still ways to recover parts of the hard drive if you know what your doing. Why wouldn't they send the damaged drive to a data recovery company?

a reply to: ObjectZero

not only that but most of those emails are probably cached on numerous machines under numerous accounts.

Any IT guy worth a shred would be able to find that data some how, im not even a good IT guy and i think i could and i do not have the resources of the government behind me.

a reply to: LrdRedhawk

Ans this is something that myself and several others in the IT world here, with Govt experience stated this was the fact.

And all the 0bama supporters made excuses and attacked us when we stated that the emails were not only backed up, but that it was a willful act to get rid of the emails.

a reply to: mclarenmp4

Everyone should know and try this website for when those pesky pages are removed.

archive.org...

a reply to: neo96

Actually, 3 years ago, OSHA was still using tapes as backups.

And the company I work for now uses Tapes and Cloud Backup.

my question remains.....why does anybody expect these groups that apply for tax-exempt status TO NOT BE TARGETED!....they are trying to get away with NOT paying taxes....hello??? anyone out there?....again for the umpteenth time...liberal groups were also targeted, everyone that applied for these were targeted....has anyone heard of IRS "red flags"....these are certain deductions taken by REGULAR TAXPAYERS that are also targeted for scrutiny...I actually wish MORE of these groups were audited, not less....if my tax forms can be scrutinized by the IRS, so can republicans. what a bunch of whining babies....

a reply to: jimmyx

Because groups on the other side were not scrutinized like these groups were.

And now that it has been shown that the IRS has lied, now you will change the subject to this.


That party line must be a difficult thing to tow right now.

originally posted by: macman
a reply to: jimmyx

Because groups on the other side were not scrutinized like these groups were.

And now that it has been shown that the IRS has lied, now you will change the subject to this.


That party line must be a difficult thing to tow right now.

one liberal group was refused their tax-exempt status, and liberal groups were also targeted....again, these groups are trying to NOT GET TAXED!....sooooo....you get targeted, so what?....
www.thewire.com...
why is it that this little nugget is NOT included in this fake outrage?

a reply to: jimmyx

How do we know this??? I guess that you saw the emails that prove this?

a reply to: jimmyx

I don't see the logic in your post. If they were targeting both sides of the fence why does that make it any less deplorable?
They are a government agency that is targeting certain groups when they should be just focusing on doing their jobs and not targeting anyone.

This is a case of a government agency overstepping it's mandated powers which ever side of the fence you sit on.

a reply to: jimmyx

www.politifact.com...

George also noted that while 16 groups with "progressive" in the name showed up among the 298 cases, that represented just 30 percent of all "progressive" applications. That is in stark contrast to groups with "tea party," "patriot," or "9/12" in their name, of which 100 percent saw their applications held up.

So some progressive and liberal groups may have been flagged, and others may have ended up getting swept in the searches run by the Cincinnati office because their names had certain buzz words or phrases, but they didn’t get put through the ringer, at least on par with tea party groups.

Brazile, who did not respond to an email, said the IRS was "looking at everybody" including liberal groups and progressive groups. Yes, some progressive groups did have their tax-exempt status applications flagged as the IRS reviewed whether nonprofit groups were engaging in political activities. But it wasn’t to the same degree as tea party and other conservative groups, nor did it result in the same actions. The list targeting tea party groups resulted in delayed processing that in some cases lasted almost three years and inquiries into their donors. Further, the inspector general found tea party groups were systematically singled out as part of an office-wide effort, while progressive groups were not.

originally posted by: macman
a reply to: jimmyx

Because groups on the other side were not scrutinized like these groups were.

And now that it has been shown that the IRS has lied, now you will change the subject to this.


That party line must be a difficult thing to tow right now.

you keep saying I'm always towing some type of line...why is that?...because I don't bless every word that comes out of the right's piehole...I am countering falsehoods, this "targeting by the IRS of ONLY rightwing groups" is a falsehood, or better put, a lie....and it keeps being said over and over, like a broken record, even though congressional records indicate otherwise...like in "Mein Kampf" if something is said over and over, even though it's a lie, it will soon be believed by many. in fact, "Mein kampf" already has too many similarities to modern day propaganda for me.

a reply to: jimmyx

It has been shown that a small percentage of liberal groups were targeted.

The large portion were Conservative based groups.


And if you don't like being shown that you are towing the line, maybe stop doing it.

Now, back on topic of the IRS being shown to have lied yet again........

a reply to: jimmyx

There is nothing fake about my outrage. But, that is because I've made a point of educating myself of the details...on both sides.

The bottom line is. The IRS has repeatedly lied, obfuscated, and covered up pertinent information instead of biting the bullet and telling the truth. They have broken laws, that I would end up in jail, if I had.

You bet I'm outraged. The IRS is a bloated deceitful federal agency, that depends on people fearing them, to continue doing whatever they want.

You as an America, should be outraged too. The fact that you are not, says a lot about you.

Des

originally posted by: mclarenmp4
a reply to: jimmyx

I don't see the logic in your post. If they were targeting both sides of the fence why does that make it any less deplorable?
They are a government agency that is targeting certain groups when they should be just focusing on doing their jobs and not targeting anyone.

This is a case of a government agency overstepping it's mandated powers which ever side of the fence you sit on.

because these groups are trying to sidestep tax law...but, somehow that's not the deplorable part?....it's the IRS doing it's job that is deplorable to you...."focusing on doing their jobs" is about targeting tax-exempt groups to make sure they are in compliance with the law, but, somehow if it happens to include right-wing groups, that's the "over-stepping" part, right?
that is your justification.

originally posted by: mclarenmp4
a reply to: jimmyx

I don't see the logic in your post. If they were targeting both sides of the fence why does that make it any less deplorable?
They are a government agency that is targeting certain groups when they should be just focusing on doing their jobs and not targeting anyone.

This is a case of a government agency overstepping it's mandated powers which ever side of the fence you sit on.

They are doing their job...they are supposed to "target" groups that are filing for tax exempt status to make sure they aren't participating in various activities...one of those activities are political campaigning.

With the Tea Party movement, this was a new group surfacing that is closely tied with politics. One IRS office thought it would be a good idea to look for keywords of "tea party" or "patriot" to ask further questions on their political activities. It was done, as stated by the IRS, not for political reasons but in an attempt to take some shortcuts to find the filings that they needed to spend more time on. Out of 300 claims they picked out to scrutinize more closely, 75 of them were tea party groups.

Honestly, that doesn't sound abusive to me...but the IRS has already come out and stated that those employees and that one office were in the wrong.

The rest of this story is just a witch hunt to desperately try to find a link from that ONE irs office back to Obama. After all their digging, they can't even find a link from that one office back to IRS headquarters. So now we have the Republicans trying to save face...they have wasted so much time, money, and resources on this and have come up empty handed. So now they are desperately clinging onto these "missing emails" (even though they have 24,000+ emails) as their last desperate attempt to not look like fools.