Hacker (illustration)
Hacker (illustration)iStock

The State Department fell victim to a cyberattack and notifications of a possible serious breach were made by the Department of Defense Cyber Command, a source told Fox News on Saturday.

It remains unclear if any department operations were affected by the breach, but a source familiar with mass evacuation of thousands of Americans and Afghans from Kabul said Operation Allies Refuge has "not been affected".

The extent of the breach and the perpetrators behind the attack remain unclear at this time.

"The Department takes seriously its responsibility to safeguard its information and continuously takes steps to ensure information is protected," a department spokesperson told Fox News. "For security reasons, we are not in a position to discuss the nature or scope of any alleged cybersecurity incidents at this time."

The exact timing of the breach is still unknown, along with whether there were any efforts made to mitigate such an attack, the report said.

In 2020, a significant cyberattack targeted the US government. The attack, blamed on hackers backed by a “foreign government”, targeted the US Treasury Department and the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

Subsequently it was revealed that the attack also targeted the US Department of Homeland Security.