American officials allege China hacked the US Treasury Department’s system and stole unclassified documents.
According to BBC, officials on Monday, December 30, 2024, said that the US Treasury Department told the lawmakers that Chinese state-sponsored hackers breached the department’s security earlier in December 2024 and accessed employees workstations and documents.
The Treasury Department describes the breach as a “major incident” in a letter written to the US lawmakers.
Aditi Hardikar, assistant secretary for management at the US Treasury, wrote in the letter, “Based on available indicators, the incident has been attributed to a Chinese state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor.”
“With access to the stolen key, the threat actor was able to override the service’s security, remotely access certain Treasury (Departmental Office) user workstations, and access certain unclassified documents maintained by those users,” the treasury letter further added.
Moreover, the US agency announced that it will work with the FBI and other agencies to investigate the “major incident” and the impact of the breach.
It was also found that the hackers used a third-party software service provider called BeyondTrust to get into the department, and it has been shut down since then. However, officials noted that there was no evidence that the hackers have continued to access the information again.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, DC, told BBC News that the US accusations are part of a "smear attack" and made “without any factual basis."
