The Pentagon is seeking help to securely transfer its unclassified email system to the cloud. The agency posted an RFP to the Federal Business Opportunities website last week. The RFP outlines plans to implement a next-generation platform and upgrade its current DOD Enterprise Email service.

Encrypted email service Lavaboom was forced to close down in the U.S. after the FBI pressured the company to reveal data from its users, including whistleblower Edward Snowden. The company relaunched in Germany, hoping tighter privacy laws would prevent the company from having to give up its mission to protect the email data of its users. However, not the company has shut down again. Despite popularity among users, the company was the subject of a German criminal investigation. Details of the investigation have remained private and the investigation itself has scared off investors, and thus the company imploded.

Google has added a new feature to Gmail that allows users to block specific email addresses. The block feature is in the drop-down menu connected to the Reply button of an opened email. Blocked emails will land in the spam folder. If a user accidentally blocks someone and wants to undo this action, it is easily reversed. In addition, Google also added a feature to the Gmail Android app that makes it easier to unsubscribe from email lists.

Hillary Clinton has come out again to say that the private email server she used while serving as Secretary of State was secure. In an interview with The Des Moines Register, she said, "There is no evidence it was ever breached." After being pressed on this issue, she pointed out that any attacks could be tracked. "We know the White House email was breached and we know that a lot of places that are supposed to be highly secured, we know that all the records were stolen out of the Office of Personnel Management, probably by the Chinese," she said. …

The FBI has recovered personal and work-related e-mails from Hillary Clinton's private server. Now the law enforcement agency is investigating why classified information was on her private server. This revelation could continue to fuel the controversy over why Clinton was using a private server to conduct official State Department business.

Rare.io has launched a new service which provides online retailers with automated predictive email marketing tools. The Canadian company hopes to help retailers go from sending batch and blast emails to sending personalized communications. The tool uses predictive analytics to help marketers send more targeted messaging.

MailChimp has introduced a new suite of email marketing tools called MailChimp Pro. The new product offering brings multivariate testing into the mix. The tool allows marketers to create up to eight variations of a campaign in a drag-and-drop editor. In addition, the new tool has a deliverability feature that allows senders to predict email deliverability.

Email marketing services firm Emarsys is expanding in the U.S. To support the expansion, the company has raised $33 million in Series A funding, a first for the company. The company, which services mid market retailers, currently has 40 employees across North and South America but expects that number to grow to 200 within the next five years.

Email marketing services firm Movable Ink has launched its first partner program. Partners can now integrate Movable Ink's contextual marketing engine for email into their platforms and sell the service to their existing customers. Through the program, marketers can purchase Movable Ink's tools directly from within their ESP's platform.

The State Department has released new information that conflicts with Hillary Clinton's account of her email scandal. Clinton contends that she handed over thousands of emails to the department as a response to a routine records request. The State Department, on the other hand, says that the request was not routine and that they only asked for the emails because she used a private server to send these emails which was unusual.