ComputerForensicsDigest.com

After a couple of days on the road to lecture on privacy in Houston, Texas, I thought it might the Boston City Hall email controversy might have quieted down. Fat chance. In typical Beantown fashion, however, the plot has thickened like unwatched chowder. Here are a few of the highlights:

1. Yesterday, top Menino aide Michael J. Kineavy, whose fastidious email deletions sparked the controversy, announced that he is taking an unpaid leave of absence. Kineavy told journalists that he has become an unnecessary distraction for the mayor, who is in the middle of a campaign for a record-breaking fifth term.
2. In an editorial published the same day, the Boston Globe urged Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley to take over the investigation, in large part because her office has subpoena power that Secretary of State William Galvin lacks. Galvin initially launched the investigation when the Meninon administration claimed that it could not supply emails sought by the Globe in a public records request. With a second computer now in play, the Globe said, "[Coakley] needs to gain physical control of the physical hardware in this case before anything goes missing."
3. Coakley is a leading Democratic contender in the upcoming U.S. Senate race to replace the recently-deceased Ted Kennedy, and undoubtedly would rather give up playoff tickets at Fenway than get involved in the swamp of Boston City Hall politics. But ignoring a formal request for assistance is not an option, so Coakley announced today that her office is working with Secretary of State Galvin to determine what action, if any, needs to be taken by her office. At the very least, it may give the attorney general a chance to use her new computer forensics lab for a high-profile case.

Not surprisingly, the Globe has used this as a teachable moment on the permanence of electronic data. It seems, however, that many people (including a number of public officials) are still under the impression that the "delete" key means what it says, despite considerable evidence to the contrary.