• On BNET: Apple's insanely great marketing
January 27, 2009 6:46 AM PST

White House e-mail down for a day

by Stephanie Condon
  • Font size
  • Print
  • 11 comments

Updated at 3 p.m. PST with quotes from White House spokesman Bill Burton.

The Obama administration may be considered tech-savvy, but that didn't do much good Monday when the White House was hit with a daylong "server outage."

Most White House aides, the first lady's office, and other executive offices were without e-mail for the day, The Washington Post reported, after the outage blocked all incoming and outgoing messages beginning around 10 a.m. EST.

As of Tuesday morning, the White House was once again sending its regular slew of e-mails.

Press secretary Robert Gibbs acknowledged the outage during a briefing to reporters Monday afternoon. White House aides at the briefing had to pass out photocopies of the executive orders signed by the president that day, rather than e-mailing them to reporters. The outage, however, did not appear to cause any major disruptions at the White House.

White House spokesman Bill Burton said the outage was the result of a piece of old hardware in the data center breaking Monday morning.

"This caused a chain reaction with other systems, specifically the e-mail servers," he said. "We began the process of modernizing all of our technology infrastructure last week, and the faulty piece of hardware that broke has been replaced."

"In spite of it all, we enjoyed the opportunity to get out from behind our computers and meet with colleagues and visitors face to face," he added.

Stephanie Condon is a staff writer for CNET News focused on the intersection of technology and politics. She is based in Washington, D.C. E-mail Stephanie.

Recent posts from Politics and Law
'Don't-be-evil' Google spurns no-evil software
White House appoints cybersecurity chief
U.S. cap and trade looks out of reach in 2010
FTC's new strategy: Kick 'em when they're down
Plurk holding Microsoft's feet to code-copying fire
FTC wants Intel to mend its ways
Biden to unveil $2 billion in broadband grants
FTC pursues Intel on new front: Graphics chips
Add a Comment (Log in or register) (11 Comments)
  • prev
  • 1
  • next
by karpenterskids January 27, 2009 7:13 AM PST
Did the Bush administration ever have "server outages"?
Reply to this comment
by us0r January 27, 2009 7:26 AM PST
no they just deleted them.
by ebrandel January 27, 2009 7:44 AM PST
@us0r
The Bush admin deleted server outages?
by scdecade January 27, 2009 7:44 AM PST
Nitwits. It takes them half a day to get an email server back up... They should outsource to someone competent.
Reply to this comment
by wolivere January 27, 2009 9:24 AM PST
Where did it say the server?
by iamarcin January 27, 2009 9:52 AM PST
the internet is for porn not email.
It took them half a day to realize it was out the other half to find the reset button.
Reply to this comment
by Michichael January 27, 2009 11:49 AM PST
Wouldn't surprise me if they were making security upgrades and forgot to use a test environment.
Reply to this comment
by kojacked January 27, 2009 12:28 PM PST
They probably shut it down on purpose once they found that Bush's auto-delete everything daemon was still running.
Reply to this comment
by rcrusoe January 27, 2009 2:09 PM PST
Bush didn't need an auto-delete daemon. The White House switched from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Exchange in 2002.

IMO, the only reason to do that was so everyone would believe them when they said, "The server lost our emails". :)
by bsharkey January 28, 2009 9:14 PM PST
they blamed it on an old piece of hardware, though we have no idea of knowing the real truth. it seems a stretch to call it software related, let alone Bush-related.

as opposed to the Clinton staff removing the "W" from every keyboard or piece of equipment before leaving, which is actually a documented fact. cute
by n3td3v January 27, 2009 2:56 PM PST
There is comment about this on n3td3v - Google Groups.
Reply to this comment
(11 Comments)
  • prev
  • 1
  • next
advertisement

Five New Year's resolutions for Google

Stakes are high as Google attempts to maintain one of the Internet's greatest cash machines while pushing into new and risky markets.
• Android event set for Jan. 5

For eBay sellers, a holiday hamster hangover

The gift frenzy over Zhu Zhu Pets leaves some power sellers feeling like they've just run a marathon--but the steep price tags lead to some impressive profits.

About Politics and Law

News at the intersection of technology, politics, and law, ranging from intellectual property to censorship to tech policy.

Add this feed to your online news reader

Politics and Law topics

advertisement
advertisement

Inside CNET News

Scroll Left Scroll Right