US reporters state that the Pentagon has had to close its E-mail system due to an attacker, who managed to penetrate the systems taking over 1,500 accounts offline.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said that a “variety of precautionary measures” were being taken. “Elements of the… unclassified email system were taken offline yesterday afternoon due to a detected penetration,” Mr Gates said.

He said it was expected that the system would be online again very soon.

Few details were available about the exact nature of the attack. A Pentagon spokesman said attacks could come from a variety of sources including: “recreational hackers, self-styled cyber-vigilantes, various groups with nationalistic and ideological agendas, trans-national actors and nation-states.”

Was the hacker able to read emails?

Officials would not say whether the hacker was able to read e-mails sent on the system. Asked if his own e-mail account was affected, Mr Gates said: “I don’t do e-mail. I’m a low-tech person.”

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