The FBI has confirmed reports that it was forced to shut down it's external unclassified email network "as a precautionary measure" following the discovery of a virus infection. I am led to understand that the particular virus concerned has been identified by the FBI but this information has yet to find it's way in to the public domain.
What most certainly has, however, is the admission by the FBI itself that it was some 48 hours after identifying the issue and mitigating the risks before email traffic was 'largely restored' to the network which is used primarily for routine communications and messages. The FBI told us that it is "important to note that the FBI's internal, classified network is where communications and e-mail about sensitive and investigative matters take place and was never affected."
Yet full functionality has yet to be restored to that unclassified network, in what must go down as a huge embarrassment for the Feds. An official FBI statement states that "Out of an abundance of caution, the FBI has temporarily self-imposed a limit on sending and receiving attachments on our external, unclassified network to give our technicians time to scan all the attachments that came into the e-mail system to make sure we have identified and mitigated all threats to the network."
We wonder, could it have been conficker? After all, it pretty much managed to sink the Royal Navy fleet comms system a few months back.