US State Department Has Shut Off Part Of Its Email System Due To Hackers

US State Department Has Shut Off Part Of Its Email System Due To Hackers

The fallout from Hillary Clinton’s homebrew email dust up is getting weird. The Department of State just shut down part of its unclassified email system in an attempt to eradicate malware they just found from Russian hackers. But State’s spokespeople say everything is OK. Probably.

News of the security effort came from ABC digital reporter Justin Fishel on Friday afternoon. Fishel says the system “could remain down through the weekend.” This, just three days after sources first revealed Russian malware had been in the system for about a year, an attack that the State Department sources say is the “worst ever.” The State Department also released a statement to quell any anxiety:

As a part of the Department of State’s ongoing effort to ensure the integrity of our unclassified networks against cyber attacks, the Department is implementing improvements to the security of its main unclassified network during a short, planned outage of some internet-linked systems… There has been no compromise of any of the Department’s classified systems, nor of our core financial, consular and human resource systems.

So let’s get this straight. About ten days ago, it’s revealed that Hillary Clinton exclusively used a private email account during her term as Secretary of State. Everybody freaked out and said that she should have used a State Department, largely for security reasons. And it sounds like somebody at the State Department then realised, “Well, shit, we’d better make sure our accounts are secure.” And then found this “worst ever” cyber attack.

Well, at least everybody cares now. For whatever that’s worth at this late stage in the game.

[USA Today]

Image via Getty


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