Hacked Democratic National Committee emails show the organization was using weak passwords, such as “obamain08” and “Obama-Biden-2012,” and that some staffers were struggling with simple email tasks.
Emails dumped online by WikiLeaks on Friday illustrated the struggle staffers experienced when they tried to log in to party accounts. “Hi Team: Does anyone have the password to [email protected]“>[email protected] handy?” Pablo Manriquez, then the DNC’s director of Hispanic outreach, asked several colleagues in a May 7 email.
Rachel Palermo, a press assistant at the DNC, responded by telling Manriquez to send it out from his own account. “Send it from your personal Outlook and change the sender to [email protected]. If you type [the address] in under the ‘change sender’ option it will automatically set that sender,” Palermo explained.
Manriquez repeated his question, explaining that the password he wrote down, which included President Obama’s name, didn’t work. “Apologies for delay in sending this out but I cannot login to [email protected]“>[email protected] with either of the passwords I have on file for the account (Obama-Biden-2012 and obamain08).”
Related Story: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2597460
“Quickest solution here is for me to blast from [email protected]? I know this runs against protocol but if [email protected] is out of commission again and I’m the press [contact] all weekend anyway … this would go a long way toward Making Saturday Great Again as your weekends faithful firewall from work [expletive] like this. Let me know. Thanks!” Manriquez said.
Palermo reiterated her case. “You don’t log into the [email protected]. You just change the sender on your own email as I said below,” she said.
Staffers finally gave up trying to explain the situation to Manriquez, and one offered to call him to provide step-by-step instructions. Manriquez left the DNC in May to join the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, where he serves as vice president of communications.
