State Department Email Restored After Nearly 12-Hour Worldwide Outage

The State Department in Washington, Monday, Dec. 15, 2014. Authorities say an electrical transformer explosion has caused power outages at several government buildings in Washington. Most power at the State Departmen... The State Department in Washington, Monday, Dec. 15, 2014. Authorities say an electrical transformer explosion has caused power outages at several government buildings in Washington. Most power at the State Department was lost and employees were told to work as best they could. Other buildings affected included the Federal Reserve, the General Services Administration, Metro's Smithsonian subway station, the Labor Department, the U.S. Park Police and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez) MORE LESS
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WASHINGTON (AP) — State Department email service has been restored after a nearly 12-hour worldwide outage hit its entire unclassified system.

Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said service resumed slowly shortly after midday Friday and was expected to be completely restored by late afternoon.

The outage began around 2 a.m. Friday morning and officials said it was not caused by human error and not “any external action or interference.”

The department was forced to shut down its unclassified email systems in 2014 in what officials said at the time was routine maintenance. But it later emerged that the system had been compromised by hackers believed to be affiliated with Russia and that the maintenance explanation was a cover story.

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