The attackers made it all the way to the network's "bloodstream"

Feb 18, 2014 13:41 GMT  ·  By

Back in September 2013, US officials accused Iran of hacking into the Navy’s computer networks. Apparently, it took the Navy four months to completely clean up its systems.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the breach was much more serious than initially believed. The attackers are said to have reached the “bloodstream” of the network.

The cleaning process also took a long time because Vice Admiral Michael Rogers, who might be named the next director of the NSA, decided to properly secure the organization’s networks by putting a comprehensive network security strategy in place.

$10 million (€7.3 million) have already been spent to drive out the hackers, but the costs will probably rise in the next period.

While no sensitive information has been obtained by the attackers, the skills of the Iranian hackers surprised officials.