14 DAY TRIAL // The Federal Bureau of Investigation was confronted with a cyber-security incident last week when a virus penetrated its unclassified network. The unnamed threat prompted technicians to shut down the network and the e-mail system associated with it for 48 hours.
In an official statement posted on its website, the FBI attempts to clarify what it claims are "factual errors and inaccuracies" in media reports regarding the incident. While the Bureau does not negate the security breach, it stresses that only its unclassified network was affected.
Furthermore, it explains that it wasn't the virus that caused the network shutdown, but FBI's own technicians, who were trying to contain the issue and address it. "The external, unclassified network was shut down by the FBI as a precautionary measure. Within 48 hours of identifying the issue and mitigating risks, e-mail traffic was largely restored to the external, unclassified network," is noted in the press release.
Responding to reports that communication with other law enforcement agencies has been disrupted, the Bureau clarifies that the unclassified network is only used for "routine communications and messages." Furthermore, it is noted that information exchange regarding "sensitive and investigative matters" is handled by a different e-mail system, on its classified network, which "was never affected."
The Law Enforcement Online (LEO), an Internet-based system operated by the FBI for sharing sensitive but unclassified communication and information with international, federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, has also remained fully functional during this incident.
The Bureau did not specify how the virus, which is also reported to have affected the U.S. Marshals Service, infected systems on its unclassified network. However, one particular statement might point to malicious e-mail attachments as being the point of entry.
"[...] the FBI has temporarily self-imposed a limit on sending and receiving attachments on our external, unclassified network to give our technicians time to scan all the attachments that came into the e-mail system to make sure we have identified and mitigated all threats to the network," the press release reads.