Hillary’s private emails: Vulnerable to hackers?

The discovery that Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton used her private email while serving as secretary of State is raising security concerns.

The New York Times reported on Tuesday that Clinton exclusively used her personal email account to conduct State Department business during her four years leading the agency.

{mosads}Federal law requires letters and emails written by federal officials like Clinton to be retained by the government. It’s not clear if Clinton violated the law with her actions.

It’s also not clear what security measures Clinton’s personal email was using, or what type of encryption, if any, it employed, the Times reported.

It’s possible Clinton’s private email was more vulnerable to hackers as a result.

Most popular email services do not have the same level of security that is employed for high-ranking federal officials’ email accounts. Clinton has not revealed what email service she was using.

The State Department has two email systems: unclassified and classified. It’s likely many of Clinton’s correspondences during her time leading the agency would have been considered classified.

The department’s email security has received criticism following a late 2014 breach. Officials said hackers only infiltrated the unclassified email system, which was temporarily shut down.

It was recently reported, however, that the agency is still working to kick out the digital intruders and fully restore its system.