Foreign agents were able to penetrate the systems of the U.S. agency responsible for maintaining and designing nuclear weapons.
The National Nuclear Security Administration, which operates under the United States Department of Energy, was compromised along with other sectors of the department.
According to Bloomberg, while the NNSA is semiautonomous, it still holds the responsibility of producing and dismantling nuclear arms in the United States. This makes the intrusion even more concerning when considering the origins of those who penetrated the system.
The Energy Department revealed in an email to Bloomberg that an "exploitation of a Microsoft SharePoint zero-day vulnerability began affecting the Department of Energy" on Friday, July 18.
The email continued, "The department was minimally impacted due to its widespread use of the Microsoft M365 cloud and very capable cybersecurity systems. A very small number of systems were impacted. All impacted systems are being restored."
