I would have quoted some interesting material from SANS NewsBites Vol. 17 Num. 021 : U.S. State Department Email Goes Dark but the terms of the newsletter prohibit reposting to websites. You can subscribe for yourself at http://portal.sans.org/.
Without quoting their material, I can say that if you are having difficulty hacking U.S. State Department emails servers, it isn’t you.
Justin Fishel and Lee Ferran report in State Dept. Shuts Down Email After Cyber Attack, that the State Department has taken down large parts of its unclassified email system. This just months after another shutdown for similar reasons last November. No date as been set for restoration of service.
Attempting to configure a network connection only to discover that the Ethernet cable is unplugged doesn’t make for a happy day. Hacking a down system is likely quite similar. You’ll just have to catch State between purges of its email system.
The SANS NewsBites newsletter is a great read!
Enjoy!