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A Chinese state-sponsored actor hacked the U.S. Treasury Department through a third-party service provider in a “major cybersecurity incident,” the agency said Monday.
In a letter to the Senate Banking Committee seen by the Financial Times, the Treasury said it was informed by software company Beyond Trust on December 8 that a hacker had compromised several remote government workstations by obtaining a security key and in turn accessing documents. Unclassified.
“Based on available indicators, the incident has been attributed to a Chinese state-sponsored advanced persistent threat (APT) actor,” the letter said. “Per Treasury policy, intrusions attributable to advanced persistent threats are considered a major cybersecurity incident.”
The department said it was working with the FBI and other investigators in the broader intelligence community to determine the impact of the hack. She added, “At this time, there is no evidence to suggest that the threat actor continued to access Treasury Department information.”
In a separate statement on Monday, a Treasury Department spokesperson said the agency “takes seriously all threats against our systems and the data they hold.”
“We will continue to work with partners from the private and public sectors to protect our financial system from threat actors,” the person added.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This breach is the latest cybersecurity breach involving US targets that was allegedly carried out on behalf of China.
In October, the Biden administration said that was the case Investigation What the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said was “unauthorized access to commercial communications infrastructure by PRC actors.” Hackers have reportedly targeted the phones of President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance in the run-up to the US election.
The level of concern is confirmed by the Ministry of Commerce in September Take steps To limit China's access to Americans' data by proposing a ban on Chinese software and hardware for vehicles with built-in Internet connectivity.
