Hackers Still Camping Out In State Department's 'Secure' Email Server Three Months After Initial Break-In

When the U.S. State Department’s email was hacked back in November, it was a black eye for the government. But, to many of us, this seemed the sort of problem that would be quickly eradicated – after all, our guys are the no slouches when it comes to cyberattacks. But as it turns out, the State Department’s email woes don’t appear to be over, and the culprits have yet to be unmasked.

Russia has been brought up as a possible suspect, though the NSA hasn’t (at least, publicly) nailed down a culprit at this point – three months after the hack was revealed to the public. The State Department is still working on the problem.


“We have robust security to protect our systems and information, and we deal successfully with thousands of attacks every day,” said U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf in an email to BloombergBusiness.

The good news is that the email in question is unclassified, which makes the presence of hackers more annoying than dangerous. Even so, the State Department’s inability to immediately and permanently dislodge hackers from the system is surprising and a little concerning.