Washington: Chinese Hackers Access US Treasury Department Workstations
The United States Treasury Department has confirmed that Chinese hackers have remotely accessed several workstations and unclassified documents after compromising a third-party software service provider. The hack was discovered on December 8, when a provider, BeyondTrust, flagged that hackers had stolen a key used to secure a cloud-based service used to remotely provide technical support to workers.
The Treasury Department did not provide details on how many workstations had been accessed or what type of documents the hackers may have obtained, but stated that at this time, there is no evidence indicating the threat actor has continued access to Treasury information.
The hack is being investigated as a major cybersecurity incident, and the department has taken steps to contain the damage by taking the compromised service offline.
The incident comes as US officials continue to grapple with the fallout of a massive Chinese cyberespionage campaign known as Salt Typhoon, which gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans. A senior White House official reported on Friday that the number of telecommunications companies confirmed to have been affected by the hack has now risen to nine.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning responded to the allegations, stating that China consistently opposes all forms of hacking and is even more opposed to the dissemination of false information against China for political purposes.