United States authorities have confirmed that a Chinese state-sponsored hacker breached the U.S. Treasury Department.
Authorities said the hackers have accessed government employees’ workstations and unclassified documents.
The New York Times reports that President Joe Biden’s administration confirmed this development on Monday.
According to the report, the incident was flagged on December 8 by BeyondTrust, a third-party software service provider.
However, the hacker had obtained a security key that enabled remote access to certain treasury workstations and the documents stored on them.
“Based on available indicators, the incident has been attributed to a China state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor,” a letter from the Treasury Department to lawmakers read.
“In accordance with Treasury policy, intrusions attributable to an APT are considered a major cybersecurity incident.”
The U.S. Treasury Department is currently working with the FBI, intelligence agencies, and other investigators to assess the impact of the breach.
Meanwhile, the compromised service has since been deactivated, and there is no evidence suggesting that the Chinese actor still has access to treasury information.
