The U.S. State Department will shut down segments of its unclassified email for a "short, planned outage."
The agency issued a media advisory that it is implementing improvements to the email's security system during the outage. No classified information has been compromised, according to the State Department.
The reasoning for shutting down the email system at this time remains unclear, but ABC News reporter Justin Fishel tweeted that the shutdown was an attempt to get rid of malware inserted into the system by Russian hackers. Mashable could not independently confirm that claim.
State Dept. to shut down large parts of its unclassified email system in attempt to rid it of mal-ware inserted by suspected Russian hackers— Justin Fishel (@JustinFishelABC) March 13, 2015
Large parts of the unclassified email systems at State are down now and could remain down through the weekend as they are being worked on.— Justin Fishel (@JustinFishelABC) March 13, 2015
If the shutdown is indeed intended to weed out hackers, however, it's also unclear if the action is related a hack from November 2014. As a result of that attack, the State Department also shut down its entire unclassified email system at the time, then an unprecedented move for the organization.
Furthermore, the State Department says that hackers still have access to the system and has not been able to fully shut them out.