Remember when President Biden met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in June, and the Washington Post’s Max Boot proclaimed that Biden “wiped the smirk off Putin’s face”? Among other issues, Biden had brought up cyberattacks against U.S. infrastructure, and helpfully gave Putin a list of 16 “critical infrastructures” that should be off-limits to hacking.
We don’t know if the Russians are behind it, but we’re hearing reports that the State Department was the target of a cyberattack a couple of weeks ago.
🚨BREAKING, thread:
The State Department has been hit by a cyber attack, and notifications of a possible serious breach were made by the Department of Defense Cyber Command.
— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) August 21, 2021
It is unclear when the breach was discovered, but it is believed to have happened a couple weeks ago.
A source familiar tells Fox the State Department’s ongoing mission to evacuate Americans and allied refugees in Afghanistan “have not been affected”.
— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) August 21, 2021
The extent of the breach, investigation into the suspected entity behind it, efforts taken to mitigate it, and any ongoing risk to operations remains unclear.
A DoS spox tells me:
— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) August 21, 2021
“The Department takes seriously its responsibility to safeguard its information and continuously takes steps to ensure information is protected. For security reasons, we are not in a position to discuss the nature or scope of any alleged cybersecurity incidents at this time.”
— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) August 21, 2021
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Notably, a Senate Homeland Security committee report this month rated State Department’s overall information security a ‘D’, the lowest possible rating in the model, calling it ineffective in 4 of 5 function areashttps://t.co/FqOnxeaimr pic.twitter.com/ALqq94l1hd
— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) August 21, 2021
The scope of this attack can be inferred, to an extent, by congressional notification requirements.
Under federal law each agency determines whether the cyberattack or info security incident meets “major incident” criteria – if so, they are required to tell Congress within 7 days— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) August 21, 2021
https://t.co/S4BcS8TkcN pic.twitter.com/uBBcC9edT6
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) August 21, 2021
I thought he gave Putin a do not hack list? Wonder what went wrong…
— New Age Outlaw (@OG_Outlaw_4Life) August 21, 2021
Guess he didn't add that to his list
— Ronald Gendrachi (@rgendrachi) August 21, 2021
State department wasn’t on the list
— StevenWoolery (@Stevenwoolery) August 21, 2021
A foreign power hacks DOS just as a bunch of stranded Afghans who’ve helped our war efforts try to get visa paperwork squared away?🤔
— Charlie Foxtrot mutation (@Deplorable1520) August 21, 2021
Let me guess, Biden changed all the Passwords to “Password”
— Dr. J.J. by the Bay (@flagg_colonel) August 21, 2021
Oh boy, it just keeps getting better and better.
— RedGirls (@RedGirls_4) August 21, 2021
https://twitter.com/YesThatDigs/status/1429188432996278287
— Rob (@Reec23) August 21, 2021
— Polly Karr (@karr_pe) August 21, 2021
— Gege, Queen of GIFs, Esq. (@Pomquat) August 21, 2021
— ︎︎︎ ︎ ︎ ︎︎︎︎ ︎ ︎︎︎︎ ︎ ︎ ︎︎︎︎ ︎ ︎ ︎︎︎︎ ︎ ︎ ︎︎︎︎ ︎ (@Shimographer) August 21, 2021
Good news is always followed by even better news.
— Dr. Ali George (@doc_redbeard) August 21, 2021
This is unconscionable.. it’s about time we use our resources and shore up our cybersecurity. One of these days we will be crippled by the right hack. So much of our infrastructure is ripe for attack. A power grid hit could be a fatal blow
— Dick Morgan (@cymru1051) August 21, 2021
Has anyone contacted @HillaryClinton about this?
— NorCalTexan (@NorCalTexan) August 21, 2021
Let's be clear – the State Dept has been continually hacked for years. They just occasionally notice it.
— Cardinal Fang (@hbdanahy) August 21, 2021
— SWFL (@Qwispnet) August 21, 2021
Based on recent performance, I’d say taking down the State Department is doing them a favor
— Erick Ames (@erick5505) August 21, 2021
This will probably get lost in the news cycle but we’d be curious to hear more about it.
And just as a reminder to the “but her emails” crowd, a former secretary of state was using an unsecured, homebrew email server to communicate with the president and her staffers.
Related:
Biden says he gave Putin a list of ‘critical infrastructures’ that should be off-limits to cyberattack (and people have questions) https://t.co/NDyGXA52w9
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 16, 2021
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