The U.S. State Department announced on Friday that it is temporarily shutting down some parts of its email system to improve its security.
"As a part of the Department of State's ongoing effort to ensure the integrity of our unclassified networks against cyber attacks, the Department is implementing improvements to the security of its main unclassified network during a short, planned outage of some internet-linked systems," spokesperson Jen Psaki wrote in a press release.
Other agencies and security experts are currently monitoring the activities within the system to capture any suspicious activities. It is not yet known as to how long the shutdown will be, but ABC News reported that the maintenance could be over the weekend.
Last month, three people told the Wall Street Journal that three months after detecting some unauthorized activity within the U.S. State Department's email systems, government officials are still unable to clear the network. The computer network was shut down in October of last year to ensure security. The National Security Agency (NSA) is scanning the systems and blocking the hackers, but those steps are not enough because the hackers are still able to find a new entrance by altering the codes. The sources added that the investigators are still unsure of the data taken. Russia remains suspect because of the similarity of the malware to other tools linked to Moscow and that it might be related to the Ukraine crisis.
But on the recent shutdown, the federal department clarified that it was done for security improvement and not due to the email system being compromised, which they know that people are most likely to think initially.
"The Department continues to closely monitor and respond to activity of concern on our unclassified network. Such activity is something we take very seriously. There has been no compromise of any of the Department's classified systems, nor of our core financial, consular, and human resource systems," the release stated.
