The US State Department said Monday it shut down its unclassified computer network over the weekend after evidence emerged that it could have been hacked. Officials believe the incident "was linked" to one late last month when hackers breached the White House's unclassified computer network, State Department press office director Jeff Rathke told reporters.

The State Department had initially said in an email late Friday that the shutdown came as scheduled routine maintenance to its main unclassified network, and would impact email traffic and access to public websites.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2014