Pentagon's Joint Staff email system back after cyber attack

PanARMENIAN.Net - Two weeks after it was shut down by a "highly sophisticated cyber attack," the Pentagon's Joint Staff unclassified email system was expected to be back up and running late Friday, Aug 7, according to NBC.

The intrusion occurred sometime around July 25 and affected about 4,000 military and civilian personnel who work for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Officials told NBC News it's suspected that the same Russian hackers believed to have infiltrated White House and State Department unclassified emails in April carried out the cyber attack against the Joint Staff.

The Joint Staff emails were penetrated as the result "spear phishing" and "human error, not technical vulnerabilities," officials said. It's believed that one or more of the thousands of military and civilians personnel who use the system "violated protocols and security procedures" by "opening and clicking on" emails from unknown sources.

Cyber security officials were disturbed by "the speed at which the attack infiltrated the system," NBC News quoted sources as saying. Defense officials said the "intrusion was quickly detected and the entire system was shut down," and stressed that no classified material was compromised or stolen, and only a relatively small amount of information was lost.