Infected emails in Clinton trove

Researchers spot at least 5 hacker attempts on private server

WASHINGTON -- Hackers tried at least five times to pry into Hillary Rodham Clinton's private email account while she was secretary of state, emails released Wednesday show. It is unclear if she clicked on any attachment and exposed her account.

The infected emails were among the 6,300 additional pages of emails released by the State Department, chronicling Clinton's tenure as secretary of state and the major U.S. foreign-policy upheavals of 2011. All of the messages were written by Clinton or sent by others to the private email account.

Clinton received the infected emails, disguised as speeding tickets, over four hours early on the morning of Aug. 3, 2011. The emails instructed recipients to print the attached tickets, which would have allowed hackers to take control of their computers.

Security researchers who analyzed the malicious software in September 2011 said infected computers would transmit information from victims to at least three server computers overseas, including one in Russia. That doesn't necessarily mean Russian intelligence or citizens were responsible.

Clinton, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, has said repeatedly that the private server she used was secure.

The phishing attempts highlight the risk of Clinton's unsecure email being pried open by foreign intelligence agencies, even if someone else also received the virus, which was concealed as a speeding ticket from Chatham, N.Y. The email misspelled the name of the city, came from a supposed New York City government account and contained a "Ticket.zip" file that would have been a red flag.

Most commercial antivirus software at the time would have detected the software, identified it as dangerous and prevented users from infecting themselves. It was unclear if the State Department's network security would have flagged the infected message, or what precautions were in place protecting Clinton's server in the basement of her home in Chappaqua.

According to other messages made public Wednesday, Clinton was warned against revealing her private email practices at the State Department over hacking fears.

Clinton's chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, sent an email on June 4, 2011, suggesting that State Department staff members not "telegraph" that some officials were using private email accounts on which they conducted government business.

Mills suggested to Clinton and others that she had been the victim of an attempted hacking and wrote that she was "not sure we want to telegraph how much folks do or don't do off state mail b/c [because] it may encourage others who are out there."

The warning from Mills was prompted by an email from a former State Department employee, Anne-Marie Slaughter, who wrote June 3 "that State's technology is so antiquated that NO ONE uses a State-issued laptop and even high officials routinely end up using their home email accounts to be able to get their work done quickly and effectively."

With Wednesday's release, 37 percent of Clinton's 30,000 work-related emails are now public. The State Department plans to release them all by January. The emails -- many redacted heavily before public release -- have provided no shocking disclosures thus far.

As part of the new batch of emails, officials upgraded the classification level of portions of 215 emails, State Department spokesman John Kirby said. Almost all were "confidential," the lowest level of classification. Three emails were declared "secret," a midtier level for information that could still cause serious damage to national security, if made public.

In addition to running for the Democratic presidential nomination, Clinton is preparing to testify Oct. 22 in front of a House committee over the attacks on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, which left four Americans dead, including an ambassador.

In comments on Fox News Channel, however, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy suggested that the committee can take credit for Clinton's slumping poll numbers.

"Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right?" said McCarthy. "But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she's untrustable. But no one would have known any of that had happened had we not fought and made that happen."

The Democratic reaction was swift to the comments from McCarthy, who is seen as a top candidate for the next speaker of the House.

Clinton called the comments "deeply distressing," saying they show "unequivocally that this was always meant to be a partisan political exercise."

A spokesman for the Benghazi committee, Jamal Ware, said: "People view the Benghazi Committee through whatever lens or spin they choose, meanwhile, the Benghazi Committee is focused on, and our work is driven by, the facts."

Information for this article was contributed by Erica Werner and staff members of The Associated Press and by Ben Brody ob Bloomberg News.

A Section on 10/01/2015

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