Russian hackers accessed Pentagon's unclassified email system

Russian hackers allegedly accessed the Pentagon's Joint Staff unclassified email system, which led the agency to take the service offline for nearly two weeks.

NBC News reported, through anonymous sources, that the “sophisticated cyber intrusion” occurred around July 25 and affected nearly 4,000 military and civilian personnel who work for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The cyber attack apparently relied on an automated system that could quickly gather large amounts of data and distribute it to thousands of online accounts. The entire process could last only a minute.

The hackers also reportedly conducted the cyberattack in conjunction with encrypted social media accounts. CNN reported that the attack originated from a spear phishing email, even though “all of the required cyber protection and patches were in place.”