Breaking: U.S. Treasury Department hacked by suspected Chinese state-sponsored actors, raising concerns over national security and sensitive financial data. Investigation underway. https://t.co/H4mcox8qeS
— Vincent Champain (@vchampain) December 31, 2024
Chinese hackers remotely accessed several U.S. Treasury Department workstations and unclassified documents after compromising a third-party software service provider, the agency said Monday. The department did not provide details on how many workstations had been accessed or what sort of documents the hackers may have obtained. However, it said in a letter to lawmakers revealing the breach that “at this time there is no evidence indicating the threat actor has continued access to Treasury information.”
“Treasury takes very seriously all threats against our systems, and the data it holds,” the department said.
The word missing here is: again.
And they’re not alone. China has been waging a cyber battle against us for years. This isn’t just shadow boxing, it’s undermining our freedom and making us poorer as our ideas are stolen and our companies left broken. https://t.co/KGgVAS12gE
— Tom Tugendhat (@TomTugendhat) December 30, 2024
The Treasury Department told lawmakers Monday that a state-sponsored actor in China hacked its systems, accessing several user workstations and certain unclassified documents:
https://t.co/QEXlOVWIS5— Sheena Chestnut Greitens (@SheenaGreitens) December 31, 2024
“Over the last four years, Treasury has significantly bolstered its cybersecurity measures, and we will continue to work with both private and public sector partners to protect our financial system from threat actors.”
The department said it learned of the problem on Dec.
By me @Forbes: US Treasury hacked, China in the crosshairs, what we know so far.#infosec https://t.co/f0xCJhqYpp
— Davey Winder (@happygeek) December 31, 2024
8 when a third-party software service provider flagged that hackers had stolen a key used by the vendor that helped it override the system and gain remote access to several employee workstations. The compromised service has since been taken offline, and there’s no evidence that the hackers still have access to department information, Aditi Hardikar, an assistant Treasury secretary, said in the letter Monday to leaders of the Senate Banking Committee.
Treasury cybersecurity breach by Chinese hackers
The department said it was working with the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and that the hack had been attributed to Chinese culprits. It did not elaborate.
The incident comes as U.S. officials continue to grapple with the fallout of a massive cyberespionage campaign known as Salt Typhoon that gave officials access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans. A Foreign Ministry spokesperson did not directly address the Treasury incident but reiterated a stance against hacking allegations in general. “We have repeatedly stated our position on such groundless accusations that lack evidence,” Mao Ning said at a daily briefing.
“China consistently opposes all forms of hacking, and we are even more opposed to the dissemination of false information for political purposes.”
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