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GCN Home > 02/04/05 web stories

FBI shuts down hacked e-mail accounts

By Wilson P. Dizard III, GCN Staff

The FBI late Friday confirmed reports that parts of its fbi.gov e-mail system had been hacked.

“The FBI is aware of a compromise to a commercial e-mail system which hosts a limited number of fbi.gov accounts,” according to a bureau statement. “The e-mail service is provided by a commercial vendor.

“These accounts are used for nonsensitive, nonsecure communications and do not impact secure internal and external FBI e-mail accounts,” the statement continued. “The FBI has suspended use of these fbi.gov accounts pending completion of a review of the matter.”

An FBI official confirmed that some of the accounts involved were provided by AT&T Corp.

The hacking incident is the latest in a rough period for the bureau, during which its top IT leadership admitted that the FBI has wasted more than $100 million in a failed attempt to build a new case management system called Virtual Case File.

More news on related topics: IT Security



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