The United States Department of the Treasury has been hacked by a Chinese state-sponsored actor through a third-party software service provider, according to a letter that the agency sent to Congress on Monday and that has been collected by various US media and agencies.
The Treasury described the intrusion as a “serious cybersecurity incident” as it was attributed to a Chinese state-sponsored actor, the letter said. BloombergNews.
The Treasury was notified on December 8 by a third-party software provider, BeyondTrust., that a hacker had gained access “to a key used by the provider to secure a cloud-based service used to remotely provide technical support to end users of the Departmental Offices of the Treasury,” according to the letter.
The information accessed by these “Chinese state-sponsored” hackers included unclassified documents that users kept on their computers.
The US Department has not provided details about the number of affected users or the type of documentation that was obtained, although he assured that compromised services have been disconnected. “There is no evidence to indicate that the attackers continue to have access to Treasury systems or information,” the letter adds.
Treasury is being assisted by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the FBI, the intelligence community and third-party forensic investigators to analyze the scope of the attack and pursue those responsible.
The Chinese embassy in Washington has rejected the «smear attacks against China without any basis» by the US authorities, according to a statement sent to the US media. “The United States must stop using cybersecurity to defame and slander China, and stop spreading all types of disinformation about the alleged threat of Chinese hacking,” say the Beijing spokespersons.
The disclosure of the leak comes as the White House continues to investigate what it considers uvast cyber espionage campaign against US telecommunications companies by Chinese state-sponsored hackers. On Friday, the White House said nine telecommunications companies had been affected by the attacks, attributed to a group that Microsoft Corp. has dubbed ‘Salt Typhoon.’
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