According to Bloomberg, the U.S. Treasury Department said in a letter to Congress that the agency was attacked by hackers sponsored by the Chinese government and described the intrusion as a "major cybersecurity incident" because it was state-sponsored. What the person did.
Chinese government-sponsored hackers hacked into U.S. Treasury Department
Third-party software vendor BeyondTrust Inc. notified the Treasury Department that a hacker gained access to "keys used by the vendor to secure a cloud-based service used to provide technical support to users remotely in Treasury offices." The hackers were able to remotely access certain Treasury workstations and "certain non-confidential documents maintained by these users."
A Treasury Department spokesperson stated, "The compromised BeyondTrust service has been taken offline, and there is no evidence that the threat actor continues to use the Treasury's systems or information."
According to government data compiled by Bloomberg, BeyondTrust, which sells management access software and other cybersecurity products, has signed contracts worth over $4 million with the federal government. In addition to the Treasury Department, BeyondTrust also has business dealings with the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Justice, and other agencies.
"Salt Typhoon" has infiltrated U.S. communication information.
The revelation of this incident comes as the White House continues to investigate alleged state-sponsored hackers from China targeting large-scale cyber espionage activities against U.S. telecommunications companies. The White House stated that nine telecommunications companies were affected by these attacks, attributed to a group nicknamed "Salt Typhoon."
Allegedly, hackers spent months lurking within U.S. telecommunications networks, collecting unspecified amounts of phone and text message information from Americans. According to the New York Times, the cell phones of then-presidential candidate Trump, his running mate Vance, Trump’s family, and members of Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign team, among others, were attacked.
The Chinese embassy in Washington expressed in an email statement its opposition to the U.S. "baselessly smearing and attacking China." The U.S. should stop using cybersecurity to slander China and cease spreading false information about so-called Chinese hacker threats.
Previously, Chinese President Xi Jinping also told U.S. President Biden at the APEC meeting, "There is no evidence to support the irrational claim of 'cyber attacks from China.'"
Is this article another incident after Salt Typhoon? The U.S. Treasury Department was hacked by state-sponsored attackers from China, first reported by Chain News ABMedia.