China-Backed Actor Hacks U.S. Treasury Department
Investing.com -- According to an announcement made by the Biden administration on Monday, the U.S. Treasury Department has recently been hacked by a China-backed actor, leading to unauthorized access to workstations of government employees and non-classified documents.
This incident follows recent revelations that China has infiltrated U.S. telecommunications systems, allowing access to phone calls and text messages of U.S. officials and others.
On December 8, third-party software service company BeyondTrust warned the Treasury Department that the hacker had compromised a security key. This key provided remote access to selected Treasury workstations and the documents contained within them. The department disclosed this information in a letter sent to lawmakers.
In response to the breach, the Treasury Department collaborated with the FBI, the intelligence community, and other investigators to assess the impact. The compromised service has since been taken offline. The department confirmed that there is no evidence that the Chinese state actor still has access to Treasury information.
A Treasury spokesperson issued a statement emphasizing the department's commitment to protecting its systems and the data they contain from hacking threats. The department will continue to partner with the private sector and government agencies to protect the financial system.
The Treasury Department refrained from specifying a timeline for the incident but promised to provide further details in an additional report soon to be submitted to Congress.
In related news, a separate breach of U.S. telecommunications systems by a Chinese hacker group known as Typhoon has raised concerns about the vulnerability of U.S. systems. This summer, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)'s cybersecurity team detected the hack that allowed China to access conversations of other Americans, including Donald J. Trump and JD Vance.
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