State Department: Crash not 'malicious'

The data warehouse that supports worldwide visa and passport verification operations is sputtering along, but the State Department says the problems that brought it down were not caused by anything "malicious."

The system, the Consular Consolidated Database (CCD) at the State Bureau of Consular Affairs, is operating at limited capacity after an unspecified glitch crippled it July 19, according to Marie Harf, deputy spokesperson for the State Department.

"We do not believe there was any malicious action or anything untoward here," Harf said at the end of the department’s daily press briefing July 24. "This was a technical issue, and again, we are working to correct it and should be fully operational again soon. We’re operating at a little bit of limited capacity right now, though, so we're trying not to overload the system," she added.

Harf shed some light on a few of the details surrounding the CCD's problems, saying it crashed shortly after maintenance was performed, leading to the conclusion that malicious action probably wasn't the cause.

"We don’t know the root cause yet," she said.

Harf said the CCD was operational but not running normally, and backlogs were building. She didn't have an estimate on when the backlog would be cleared or when the system would return to normal operations.

"So don’t everybody go apply for a visa right now," Harf joked to reporters at the briefing.