Web Security News

FBI restricts email attachments in wake of web attack

Monday, June 1, 2009

A cyberattack on the Federal Bureau of Investigation led it to temporarily shut down its external email network, but the agency is disputing a report published by the New York Post claiming that the FBI's computer and email systems were "crippled" by a malicious virus.

On Friday, an article in the Post cited anonymous sources saying that "FBI agents were still unable to email their counterparts in other intelligence and law-enforcement agencies," nine days after FBI computers were hit by a virus.

But the FBI issued a statement later Friday saying the agency's external, unclassified network - which it shut down as a precautionary measure after an unspecified web attack - was back up again within 48 hours.

Web-based email is generally used by the FBI for routine communications and messages, the agency said. The FBI's internal, classified network was never affected, it said.

The FBI has temporarily self-imposed a limit on sending and receiving attachments on the external, unclassified network to give IT security technicians time to scan all the attachments that came into the email system to identify and mitigate all threats to the network, the agency said.

On May 22nd, the U.S. Marshal's Service confirmed that it had shut down its network connection to the Justice Department after its computers were infected by an unspecified virus. The FBI also confirmed at that time that it had shut down its external, unclassified email system.
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