State Department is hit by a cyber attack amid US efforts to evacuate thousands of Americans and Afghan allies from Kabul

The U.S. State Department was recently hit by a cyber attack, and notifications of a possible serious breach were made by the Department of Defense Cyber Command, it has been reported.

It is unclear when the breach was discovered, but it is believed to have happened a couple of weeks ago, according to the Fox News reporter's Twitter thread.

The State Department's ongoing mission to evacuate Americans and allied refugees in Afghanistan 'have not been affected,' the reporter added.

The extent of the breach, investigation into the suspected entity behind it, efforts taken to mitigate it, and any ongoing risk to operations remained unclear.

In a statement to DailyMail.com, a State Department spokesperson said: 'The Department takes seriously its responsibility to safeguard its information and continuously takes steps to ensure information is protected.'

'For security reasons, we are not in a position to discuss the nature or scope of any alleged cybersecurity incidents at this time.' 

The U.S. State Department was recently hit by a cyber attack, and notifications of a possible serious breach were made by the Department of Defense Cyber Command

It is unclear when the breach was discovered, but it is believed to have happened a couple of weeks ago

DailyMail.com has reached out to the Department of Defense Cyber Command for more information and additional comment.

The revelation of the hack came just weeks after the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs said that the State Department's data was at risk.

The committee ranked the State Department with a 'D', the lowest possible rating, for information security. The State Department's information security was described as 'ineffective' in four out of five areas, including the detection of threats. 

'As the lead agency for American foreign police, State has a wealth of both PII (personally identifiable information) and sensitive national security information,' the report reads.

The State Department maintains data that includes names, birthdates, and social security numbers used for visa and passport applications.

The report found 450 critical risk vulnerabilities, and 736 high-risk vulnerabilities in its computer systems.

'The State Department could not provide documentation for 60 percent of the sample employees who had access to the agency's classified network and left thousands of accounts active after an employee had left the agency for extended periods of time on both its classified and unclassified networks,' the report reads.

Some accounts remained active as long as 152 days after former employees quit, retired or were fired, according to the report.

'Former employees or hackers could use those unexpired credentials to gain access to the State's sensitive and classified information, while appearing to be an authorized user,' the report reads.

Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu tweeted that, if the hack is true, 'it's another reason why the Senate should pass our bipartisan bill to improve cyber security' at the State Department.