WASHINGTON: The US Treasury Department has revealed that Chinese government-sponsored hackers accessed and stole important documents and information this month, which has been linked to a major incident.
According to a report by the news agency Reuters, the US Treasury Department said in a letter sent to lawmakers that the hackers intervened and accessed classified documents through the service of a third-party cybersecurity service provider, Beyond Trust.
The letter said that the hackers accessed a key used by the service provider, which allowed Treasury Department officials to use the cloud service for remote technical support.
Lawmakers were informed that with access to steal the key, the hackers were able to take control of the service’s security, remotely access some Treasury Department user workstations and access classified documents stored with their help.
The US Treasury Department said that based on available evidence, the incident was linked to Chinese government-sponsored Advanced Threat (APT) hackers.
The letter to lawmakers said that Beyond Trust was informed of this on December 8 and worked with the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the FBI to assess the impact of the hackers’ intervention.
On the other hand, according to the news agency, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning told a briefing on Saturday that China always opposes all kinds of hacker attacks.
A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in the US also rejected this impression and refused to take responsibility for the hackers, saying that it strongly opposes the US’s reckless and unfounded propaganda against China.
Meanwhile, Beyond Trust also confirmed the hacker attacks, cited the steps taken to secure documents and said that it supports the investigation.
