US pilot takes selfie with Chinese spy balloon 0:54
(CNN) --
The Pentagon is investigating how a set of internal emails from the US Special Operations Command that appeared to have been publicly exposed online and leaked unclassified data for nearly two weeks without the knowledge of the military, a spokesperson to CNN.
The chief of information for the Department of Defense and the US Army Cyber Command is investigating the cause of the incident and "why this issue was not detected sooner," US Navy Commander Jessica McNulty, a spokeswoman, told CNN Thursday night. of the Pentagon.
The investigation comes after an independent cybersecurity researcher discovered three terabytes of unclassified Department of Defense emails on the public Internet, apparently due to a misconfiguration of a computer server and dated September 8. February.
That amount is equivalent to the storage of dozens of standard smartphones.
The Pentagon publishes the selfie of a pilot with the Chinese spy balloon in the air
CNN reported earlier this week that the military had launched an investigation into the investigator's report.
Samples of the emails that the investigator, Anurag Sen, shared with CNN dated back years and included standard information about US military contracts and requests from Defense Department employees to have their documentation processed.
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It's not uncommon for large organizations to inadvertently expose internal data to the Internet, but the fact that this was a Department of Defense email server will cause concern for US authorities.
The Special Operations Command is an elite Pentagon command responsible for counterterrorism and hostage rescue missions around the world.
The involvement of the Cyber Command in the investigation underscores the greater role it has acquired in recent years in protecting the extensive set of US military computer networks.
More than a decade after its formation, the command has taken on a larger role in hacking into networks of cybercriminals and foreign governments, but also in helping to defend military computer networks.
Pentagon