Chinese government-backed attackers broke into U.S. Treasury Department workstations and accessed “unclassified” documents via a cloud services intrusion earlier this month, officials told a key Senate committee. .
The cyber intruder targeted the third-party security system BeyondTrust and reported the breach to the Treasury Department on December 8, prompting the department to take the compromised service offline, a spokesperson said. That's what it means.
“There is no evidence that threat actors continued to access Treasury systems or information,” a Treasury Department spokesperson told the Post. “The Department of the Treasury takes all threats to our nation's systems and the data we hold very seriously.”
“Over the past four years, Treasury has significantly strengthened our cyber defenses and will continue to work with private and public sector partners to protect the financial system from threat actors.”
Treasury officials notified members of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on Monday about the violation, according to a letter reviewed by the newspaper.
BeyondTrust reported the breach to the Treasury Department, revealing that a “threat actor” obtained the keys needed to remotely access the cloud service.
From there, the hackers were able to bypass security systems in place and gain remote access to documents from Treasury workstations, officials said.
A spokesperson said the Treasury Department is working with the FBI, the intelligence community, third-party forensic investigators, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on this matter.
News of the hack comes amid growing concerns about the Chinese hacker group Salt Typhoon.
Salt Typhoon is believed to have been behind a massive communications system hack that was revealed in the summer, giving the Chinese government access to the communications of President-elect Donald Trump, Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, and others. has been done.
China has hacked other important government departments in the past.
Microsoft, for example, revealed last year that “China-based attackers” hacked accounts affecting more than 20 organizations, including the U.S. Department of State and the Department of Commerce.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen caused a stir last year when she visited Beijing and bowed to the Treasury secretary as part of the Biden administration's efforts to mend relations with China.
I also traveled to China in April this year.
Trade tensions between the United States and China are expected to intensify under the next Trump administration.
The newspaper has contacted representatives of Beyond Trust and the Chinese embassy in the United States for comment.
