U.S. Treasury Department Hacked by China

Chinese hackers accessed several United States Treasury Department workstations and stole unclassified documents in a “major cybersecurity incident,” the Treasury said on Monday.

Compromised: In a letter to lawmakers, the Treasury explained that on December 8, third-party cybersecurity service provider BeyondTrust informed the agency of a breach to its system by Chinese hackers.

The hackers stole a key “used by the vendor to secure a cloud-based service used to remotely provide technical support” to Treasury workers. Using this key, the hackers accessed the agency’s workstations and stole certain unclassified information.

The compromised BeyondTrust service has been taken offline and there is no evidence indicating the threat actor has continued access to Treasury systems or information.
—Aditi Hardikar, assistant Treasury secretary

Cyberthreat: The Treasury hack occurred around the same time the Chinese government carried out one of the worst attacks on the United States’ telecommunications in history, breaching at least eight major U.S. communications networks.

These cyberthreats from China are increasingly becoming more treacherous.

Learn more: Read “The Chinese Communist Party Is in Your Pocket.”