U.S. State Department was recently hit by a cyber attack

The U.S. State Department was recently hit by a cyber attack, the Department of Defense Cyber Command might have suffered a serious breach.

The U.S. State Department was recently hit by a cyber attack, the Department of Defense Cyber Command is notifying impacted individuals, White House Correspondent and fill-in anchor at Fox News Jacqui Heinrich revealed.

It is unclear when the security breach was discovered, but analysts believe it took place a couple of weeks ago.

The reporter also said that added the State Department’s ongoing mission to evacuate Americans and allied refugees from Afghanistan has not been affected.

The incident was also confirmed by a Reuters’ source, but it added that the attack did not impact the operations of the State Department.

“Without confirming any incident, a knowledgeable source told Reuters the State Department has not experienced significant disruptions and has not had its operations impeded in any way.” reported Reuters agency.

“The Department takes seriously its responsibility to safeguard its information and continuously takes steps to ensure information is protected. For security reasons, we are not in a position to discuss the nature or scope of any alleged cybersecurity incidents at this time”, a State Department spokesperson said in a statement.

The reporter pointed out that a report published by Senate Homeland Security committee this month rated State Department’s overall information security a ‘D’, the lowest possible rating in the model, calling it ineffective in 4 of 5 function areas.

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook

[adrotate banner=”9″]

[adrotate banner=”12″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]