Treasury targeted by Chinese hacker attack

Cyber ​​attack from China

USA: Treasury Department Targeted by Chinese Hacker Attack

The USA repeatedly accuses China of hacker attacks. This time the US Treasury Department is reporting an attack on its IT systems.

The US Treasury Department says it has become the target of a Chinese cyber attack. In a letter to congressmen, the ministry said, according to media reports, that it had been informed by a software company on December 8 that a hacker had obtained a security key. This gave him remote access to certain workstations at the Ministry of Finance and the documents on them – which were not classified as secret.

It is assumed that an actor sponsored by the Chinese state is behind the “serious security incident,” it said. The Treasury Department said it was working with the FBI, intelligence agencies and other investigators to determine the impact of the attack.

There is no indication that the Chinese actor still has access to the Treasury Department’s data, it said. According to the ministry, “several” Treasury user workstations were accessed. The Ministry of Finance is obliged to provide further information in an additional report within 30 days.

The USA has been accusing China of state-controlled hacker attacks for years, which China has always denied. At the beginning of December, according to US information, Chinese hackers penetrated the systems of at least eight US telecommunications providers in order to spy on high-ranking politicians.

It had already become known in October that Chinese hackers had also allegedly targeted the telephone data of US President-elect Donald Trump – then still a presidential candidate – and his deputy JD Vance. Those around the campaign team of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and other high-ranking members of Joe Biden’s government are also said to have come into the criminals’ sights at the time.