![The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S.Army General Martin Dempsey, appears before the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington July 29, 2015. Secretary of State John Kerry intensified efforts on Tuesday to beat back criticism of the Iran nuclear deal and convince U.S. lawmakers that rejecting it would give Tehran a fast track to a weapon and access to billions of dollars from collapsed sanctions. REUTERS/Gary Cameron](http://cdn.thedailybeast.com/content/dailybeast/cheats/2015/08/06/russians-hacked-joint-chiefs-of-staff/jcr:content/image.crop.800.500.jpg/47963176.cached.jpg)
Ten days before the July 27 hacking of the Joint Staff system, the Pentagon sent an email warning “at least five” DOD computer users had been targeted, which was first reported by The Daily Beast. The notice linked those attacks to penetrations of unclassified networks at the White House and State Department that began last year. The Joint Chiefs then suffered what one defense official called the “most sophisticated” attack on its unclassified network, one that has shut down communications ever since for the 4,000 employees on the Joint Staff unclassified server.
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