State Department whis­tle­­blower Richard Higbie’s personal Gmail account was hacked and roughly four years’ worth of emails were deleted, the New York Post is reporting.
State Department Whistleblower Has Years of Emails Hacked and Deleted: New York Post
Photo credit: Shutterstock/JMiks
“They took all of his emails and then they deleted them all,” Cary Schulman, Higbie’s lawyer, told the Post. “…Obviously, somebody is not happy with something he’s doing and wanted to get that information and also cause him an inability in the future to have ready access to that.”
Emails documenting wrongdoings at the State Department were reportedly among those deleted.
Schulman did not accuse a specific organization or individual, but called the act “sophisticated” and “alarming.”
The e-mails included evidence about misconduct by top officials at the department, communications with other potential whistleblowers there, and correspondence with members of Congress who are investigating the allegations, Schulman said.
They also include correspondence between Higbie and Schulman about legal strategy, the lawyer said.
Schulman said he could not provide details about the evidence deleted with the e-mails.
Higbie has asked the FBI in Dallas, where he lives, to investigate the hacking, which occurred this month.
The cyber attack follows a physical break-in at Schulman’s Dallas law firm over the summer, in which a number of computers were reportedly stolen, but other valuables were untouched.
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