14 DAY TRIAL // The main unclassified computer network at the US Department of State has been disconnected for a temporary period of time to allow implementation of better security solutions for its Internet-connected systems.
The effort started on Friday and engages security experts from other government agencies, as well as from private companies.
Although the Department denies any compromise of its classified or unclassified infrastructure, rumor in the media is that the current action is a result of a malware infection from Russian hackers.
“There has been no compromise of any of the Department's classified systems, nor of our core financial, consular, and human resource systems,” reads an official statement on Friday from the Department’s spokesperson Jen Psaki.
Furthermore, the statement stresses the fact that the outage is part of a planned maintenance procedure. The objective is implementing a strategy for long-term protection of the data on its systems.
This is not the first time the Department takes such action. In November, an unclassified email system was taken offline for the first time, amidst speculation of unauthorized intrusion.
At that time, the Associated Press received information from an official about suspicious activity having been recorded on the system, roughly in the same period a cyber-incident had been recorded at the White House.