Fox News obtained confirmation from a senior U.S. defense official that a server belonging to the Department of Defense had been left open and unprotected for the past two weeks, providing access to internal emails.
Tech Crunch reported that a server managed by the Department of Defense, hosted on Microsoft Azure's government cloud, was misconfigured in such a way that anyone with internet access, who knew the IP address and used a web browser, could gain access by entering a password.
Approximately three terabytes of emails, including information from the U.S. Special Operations Command, were exposed on a server.
The report states that the emails stored in the server seem to be from a number of years ago and include personal data.
For instance, one of the exposed documents was a filled-in SF-86 questionnaire. This form is often used by people working in the government who are applying for security clearance. It requests data such as the Social Security number and address of the applicant, as well as information on close acquaintances.
The report asserts that no data stored on the revealed server appears to be labeled as confidential information, according to Fox News.
Tech Crunch stated that the Pentagon was informed of the exposed server on Sunday and it was finally secured the following day in the afternoon.
Ken McGraw, a spokesman from the United States Special Operations Command, informed Tech Crunch, "We can confirm at this point is no one hacked U.S. Special Operations Commands information systems."
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