Pentagon confirms email system hacked

Pentagon confirms email system hacked

David Edwards Published: Thursday June 21, 2007

The Pentagon confirmed that its e-mail system was hacked, CNN reported Thursday afternoon.

"Here at the Pentagon, officials are confirming that they've been hacked," a CNN news anchor reported. "It's actually a fairly serious matter."

The report continued, "About one third of the computer users here in the Pentagon that work for Defense Secretary Robert Gates had their email system penetrated."

According to CNN, the Pentagon's computer server was taken off line on Wednesday, along with the email server.

"We have been told service is not yet fully restored to the Secretary's staff," CNN reported. "Let's emphasize, this is an unclassified server system [that] was penetrated. There are about 3,000 staff people here in the Pentagon that work for Secretary Gates, and since yesterday about one-third of them, just about 1,500 users or so, lost their email service."

"All precautionary measures are being taken and we expect this system to be on-line again very soon," Colonel Gary Keck, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters.

According to news.com.au, "He said the penetration was detected yesterday in the unclassified email system of the office of the Secretary of Defense, which employs thousands of people."

He added that "the system carries "routine email" involving administrative manners but not classified information related to military operations."

He would not comment on the source of the attack, or whether the hacker was able to read email sent over the system.

"The department has redundant systems in place and there is no anticipated adverse impact to ongoing operations," he said.

According to an Associated Press article, "Gates said the Pentagon sees hundreds of attacks a day, and this one had no adverse impact on department operations."

"When asked if his own e-mail account was affected, Gates revealed, 'I don't do e-mail. I'm a very low-tech person,'" the AP reports.