Bad cop–no email

This one comes to you from the “hard to believe” section:

Budget constraints are forcing some FBI agents to operate without e-mail accounts, according to the agency’s top official in New York.

The CNN article goes on to say that there is an “endless stream of complaints” coming in from the field, but that 75% of the agents have external email accounts.

Well that’s comforting. So the agents have send data that probably shouldn’t be sent via insecure channels to places like GMail or Hotmail just so they can do their work? That ought to make us all sleep better at night.

What’s next–carrier pigeon?