Kateryna Chornovol23:48, 30.12.24

The U.S. Treasury Department did not specify exactly when the episode occurred, but said it would provide more details in a future report to Congress.

A state-backed actor in China hacked the U.S. Treasury Department , gaining access to government employees’ workspaces and unclassified documents, the Biden administration said Monday, The New York Times reports .

In a letter informing lawmakers of the episode, the Treasury Department said it received a message on Dec. 8 from a third-party company, BeyondTrust, that a hacker had obtained a security key that allowed him to remotely access certain Treasury workstations and the documents on them.

“Based on the indicators available, the incident was linked to a Chinese state-based Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor. Under Treasury policy, breaches associated with APTs are considered a serious cybersecurity incident,” the letter said.

The U.S. Treasury Department said it was working with the FBI, the intelligence community, and others to determine the impact of the hack. The compromised service has been taken down, and there is no evidence that a Chinese state actor still has access to Treasury information.

The Treasury Department did not specify when exactly the incident occurred, but added that it would disclose more details in a future report to Congress.

The publication notes that Chinese officials have long denied any government role in the hacking attacks and have established a dialogue with the United States to work together on cybersecurity. Earlier this month, U.S. Treasury Department officials visited China for a series of meetings of their economic and financial working groups discussing cooperation on cybersecurity.

(C)UNIAN 2024