US authorities have acknowledged that a Chinese state-sponsored hacker gained access to the US Treasury Department’s workstations and unclassified data.
The New York Times reports that President Joe Biden’s staff acknowledged the news on Monday.
According to a letter from the Treasury Department to Congress, the problem was reported on December 8 by BeyondTrust, a third-party software service provider. The hacker had gained a security key, granting remote access to specific treasury workstations and the papers stored on them.
“Based on available indicators, the incident has been attributed to a China state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor,” according to the letter. “In accordance with Treasury policy, intrusions attributable to an APT are considered a major cybersecurity incident.”
TThe US Treasury Department is collaborating with the FBI, intelligence agencies, and other investigators to analyze the consequences of the incident. The compromised service has now been decommissioned, and there is no evidence that the Chinese actor still has access to treasury data.
This is the result of a huge cyberattack following prior allegations of China’s intrusion into US telecommunications, which allowed it to see US officials’ phone conversations and text messages.
According to The Times, Chinese authorities have continually denied any government participation in hacking and are in talks with the United States over cybersecurity concerns.
