A state-sponsored Chinese hacking group gained access to the U.S. Treasury Department’s workstations and unclassified documents, the Biden administration revealed on Monday.
The disclosure follows recent reports of Chinese infiltration into U.S. telecommunications networks, where hackers reportedly accessed phone conversations and text messages of government officials and other individuals.
According to a letter sent to lawmakers, the breach was discovered on December 8 when BeyondTrust, a third-party software service company, alerted the Treasury Department that a security key had been compromised. This allowed the hackers to remotely access certain Treasury workstations and the documents stored on them.
The Treasury Department, in collaboration with the FBI, the intelligence community, and other investigators, assessed the breach’s impact. The compromised service has since been taken offline, and officials stated there is no evidence that the hackers still have access to Treasury systems.
While the Treasury Department did not specify when the breach occurred, it promised additional details in an upcoming supplemental report to Congress.
