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Hillary Clinton's personal email server was hit by a 'drive-by' - and that's not even the most troubling part

Oct 1, 2015, 21:55 IST

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton reacts to the cheers from the crowd as she takes the stage at the New Hampshire Democratic Party State Convention in Manchester, New Hampshire September 19, 2015.REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Russia-based hackers attempted at least five times to infiltrate Hillary Clinton's personal email server, according to the Associated Press.

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The attempts were basic phishing scams disguised as speeding tickets, the AP reported, and rather unsophisticated.

Still, the malicious emails highlight the fact that Clinton's server was as vulnerable as any other to attack, which is concerning given the presence of top secret and classified information in her inbox and her recent admission that, when it comes to technology, the former Secretary of State "doesn't know how it all works."

'A huge security gap'

Clinton's use of the server was allowed under State Department regulations, but there are rules governing how the server should be configured and protected so it is not vulnerable to cyberattacks.

It is still unclear which safeguards were taken to protect it.

The phishing attempts may not have been sophisticated, but that is no guarantee that Clinton did not fall for them.

'Not by any means a technical expert'

NBC News

Questions have also been raised, however, about how competent her security team really was.

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The FBI has reportedly been able to recover emails Clinton said she had deleted, which has led cybersecurity experts to question whether her team could have adequately secured her server if it did not even know how to properly delete emails.

Clinton's unusual email system was originally set up by a staffer during Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign, replacing a server used by her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

"It was already there," she told Meet the Press. "It had been there for years. It is the system that my husband's personal office used when he got out of the White House. And so it was sitting there in the basement. It was not any trouble at all."

Facing mounting criticism over her use of the server while she served as Secretary of State, Clinton handed over the server to the FBI in August.

The investigation is now being led by an FBI "A-team" out of its Washington, D.C., headquarters.

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