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The department said on Monday its unclassified email systems
were the victim of a cyber attack at around the same time White
House systems were breached, but no classified data was
compromised.
As a result of the shutdown, State Department employees were
unable to access the Internet through their unclassified system
or reliably receive emails from people outside the agency.
Unclassified emails within the department continue to flow.
State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke told reporters on Tuesday
that email service from its main unclassified system had been
restored, as had blackberry service.
However, he said department employees were still unable to
access the Internet from their unclassified system, although
that was expected to be back up soon.
On Monday, Rathke said the system shutdown was scheduled before
the department learned of the attack on its network. On Tuesday,
however, the spokesman said he had misspoken and the shutdown
was scheduled only after the intrusion was discovered.
The State Department breach follows similar intrusions
at the White House, the Office of Personnel Management and, just
last week, the U.S. Postal Service and National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration.
U.S. officials have declined to say who they believe was
responsible for the cyber attack on the State Department.
(Reporting By Arshad Mohammed. Editing by Andre Grenon)
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