A state-sponsored actor in China hacked the U.S. Treasury Department, gaining access to the workstations of government employees and unclassified documents, the Biden administration said on Monday.
The announcement comes after revelations in recent months that China had penetrated deep into U.S. telecommunications systems, gaining access to the phone conversations and text messages of U.S. officials and others.
On Dec. 8, a third-party software service company, BeyondTrust, notified the Treasury Department that the hacker had obtained a security key that allowed it to remotely gain access to certain Treasury workstations and documents on them, the department said in a letter informing lawmakers of the episode.
The Treasury Department said it had worked with the F.B.I., the intelligence community and other investigators to determine the impact of the breach. The compromised service had been taken offline, and there is no evidence that the Chinese state actor still has access to Treasury information, the department said.
In a statement, a Treasury spokesperson said that the department took threats against its systems and the data they hold very seriously, and that it would continue to work with the private sector and government agencies to protect the financial system from hacking.
The Treasury Department did not clarify when the episode took place but said it would reveal more details in a forthcoming supplemental report to Congress.
Recent reports of a separate breach of U.S. telecommunications systems by a Chinese hacking group nicknamed Salt Typhoon have raised concerns about the vulnerability of U.S. systems. Microsoft’s cybersecurity team discovered that hacking this summer, which gave China access to conversations held by Donald J. Trump and JD Vance, among other Americans.
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