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Russia pulls off a major hack of the Pentagon
By Brad Reed on Aug 6, 2015 at 4:00 PM
It looks like Russian hackers made a significant breach into the Pentagon’s email system. Officials tell NBC News that Russia has launched a “sophisticated cyberattack” against the unclassified email system of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The hack has forced the Pentagon to shut down the email system for almost two weeks now and it’s affected more than 4,000 military and civilian employees who work for the Joint Chiefs.
“Sources tell NBC News that it appears the cyberattack relied on some kind of automated system that rapidly gathered massive amounts of data and within a minute distributed all the information to thousands of accounts on the Internet,” NBC reports. “The officials also report the suspected Russian hackers coordinated the sophisticated cyberassault via encrypted accounts on social media.”
It’s not clear at this time if the hack was specifically sanctioned by the Russian government or if Russian spy agencies conducted it on their own accord. However, the scope of the hack makes it clear that it was executed by a state actor, officials say.
