In March 2015, it was revealed that Clinton had used a private email account during the years she served as secretary of state. While Hillary Clinton’s numbers in the poll continue to rise, the success of the presumptive Democratic nominee in the presidential race has been overshadowed by the current email scandal. Clinton’s use of a private email account during the years she headed the State Department was considered a violation of policy.

Now, it appears there is more controversy to add to the growing Hillary Clinton email scandal. As Ars Technica reported on Thursday, government employees were potentially exposed to phishing attacks and other malicious emails after the State Department IT turned spam filters off because the former Secretary of State and her staff were having difficulty communicating with officials.

Documents recently obtained by the conservative advocacy group Judicial Watch show that in December 2010 Clinton and her staff were having difficulty communicating with State Department officials by e-mail because spam filters were blocking their messages. To fix the problem, State Department IT turned the filters off, the Ars Technica report states.

The mail problems prompted Clinton Chief of Staff Huma Abedin to suggest to Clinton, “We should talk about putting you on State e-mail or releasing your e-mail address to the department so you are not going to spam.” Clinton replied, “Let’s get [a] separate address or device but I don’t want any risk of the personal [e-mail] being accessible.”

In 1996, Huma Abedin joined as an intern at the White House. While Monica Lewinsky worked in the West Wing of the presidential residence and started an “improper relationship” with then-President Bill Clinton, Abedin was assigned to the east, where she worked closely with then-First Lady Hillary Clinton.

“You’re putting not just the Clinton server at risk but the entire Department of State emails at risk,” former DIA chief technology officer Bob Gourley told Fox News. “When you turn off your defensive mechanisms and you’re connected to the Internet, you’re almost laying out the welcome mat for anyone to intrude and attack and steal your secrets.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=se_CpaGJq5s

Apparently, Hillary Clinton is not very skilled in the use of electronic devices and a Judicial Watch deposition claims that she doesn’t even know how to use a computer. The report alleges that the former First Lady needs assistance with the simplest of tasks such as sending a fax, recharging her iPad or searching for wireless networks.

Gourley, who has over two decades of cyber-security experience, said the Russians did breach the State Department system at some point – though it’s unclear when, and whether disabling the security functions in 2010 played a role.

“A professionally run system is going to keep their defenses up all the time to at least make it hard on them,” Gurley was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, an analysis by The Associated Press regarding the official calendar of Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state, revealed at least 75 meetings with former political donors that were not recorded or omitted the names of those she met. The missing entries raise new questions about how she managed her inner circle records during her tenure at the State Department. In this case, the question is why the official calendar of her four-year term does not match closely with other more detailed records. The AP found the omissions by comparing the 1,500-page calendar with separate planning schedules supplied to Clinton by aides in advance of each day’s events. The names of at least 114 outsiders who met with Clinton were missing from her calendar, the records show.

ABC News wrote that in the deposition transcript of Clinton’s personal IT staffer, Bryan Pagliano — who was interviewed on Wednesday as part of a lawsuit concerning Hillary Clinton’s use of private email — plead the Fifth Amendment 125 times.

I want the public to see my email. I asked State to release them. They said they will review them for release as soon as possible. — Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 5, 2015

[Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]