The Treasury Department reportedly informed legislators on Monday that a state-sponsored actor in China hacked its systems, gaining access to several user workstations and specific unclassified documents.
According to a source the treasury was informed on Dec. 8 by a third-party software service provider, BeyondTrust, that a threat actor had remotely accessed specific workstations and unclassified documents using a stolen key.
The department stated that it promptly contacted the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency upon being notified and has since collaborated with law enforcement partners throughout the government to evaluate the incident.
In reply, the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., denied the Treasury Department’s allegations and stated that its government is opposed to what it characterized as U.S. slander tactics lacking any factual foundation.
China has been accused by the United States and its allies of hacking into a wide variety of government computer networks in order to further its espionage objectives for years.
In a comprehensive attack that also compromised over two dozen organizations worldwide, Chinese state-sponsored hackers were accused of breaching the email accounts of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and senior State Department officials, including the U.S. ambassador to China, last year.
In recent times, U.S. officials have expressed concern regarding a series of profound intrusions at significant U.S. telecommunications companies, which they have claimed were also perpetrated by Chinese hackers.
According to individuals with knowledge of the situation, the hackers were able to covertly listen in on certain communications that involved high-profile political figures, such as President-elect Donald Trump and senior national security officials, during those attacks.
State-sponsored hackers have long regarded the Treasury Department as a lucrative target due to its involvement in international financial matters, such as sanctions.
As part of a comprehensive campaign that compromised numerous critical federal government agencies in 2020, Russian hackers compromised dozens of department email accounts and breached the office that houses its senior officials.
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