Foldering is the practice of communicating via messages saved to the "drafts" folder of an email or other electronic messaging account that is accessible by multiple people.[1][2][3][4] The messages are never actually sent.[1][2][3][4]

Foldering has been described as a digital equivalent of a dead drop.[2]

History edit

Foldering was reportedly used by al-Qaeda at least as early as 2005[2] and it has also been used by drug cartels.[1]

Notable cases edit

In 2012, David Petraeus was reported to have used foldering to communicate with Paula Broadwell.[2][5]

In June 2018, Greg Andres cited Paul Manafort's use of foldering as evidence that Manafort engaged in deceptive behaviours.[4]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b c "Mueller's team accused Manafort of 'foldering,' a technique used by drug cartels and terrorist groups to secretly communicate".
  2. ^ a b c d e "Manafort allegedly used "foldering" to hide emails. Here's how it works". 15 June 2018.
  3. ^ a b "Paul Manafort accused of 'foldering' to hide communications". 16 June 2018.
  4. ^ a b c "Mueller says Manafort used "foldering" as part of his "deception"".
  5. ^ Fisher, Max (12 November 2012). "Here's the e-mail trick Petraeus and Broadwell used to communicate" – via www.washingtonpost.com.