U.S. State Department email systems hacked

A U.S. national flag and its shadow on the Harry S. Truman Building at the Department of State are pictured in Washington, in this October 24, 2014 file photo. REUTERS/Larry Downing/Files

Unclassified U.S. State Department email systems were cyberattacked in recent weeks, around the same time as White House systems were breached, a senior U.S. official told Reuters on Monday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said no classified systems were compromised. Portions of State’s unclassified systems have been shut down to improve security but should be back online shortly.

“The department recently detected activity of concern in portions of its unclassified email system,” said the senior U.S. official.

“The department is implementing improvements to the security of its main unclassified network during a scheduled outage of some Internet-linked systems,” the official added.