USA accuses China of cyber attack

Treasury hacked

Updated 12/30/2024 – 9:59 p.mReading time: 2 minutes

The US Treasury Department says it has been attacked by hackers – with support from China. (Source: IMAGO/dts news agency)

The US government says it has become the target of a cyber attack. The attackers are said to be targeting documents from the Ministry of Finance.

The US Treasury Department says it has been the target of a cyber attack supported by China. The cyber attack infiltrated several Treasury Department workplaces, the ministry said in a statement to the US Congress, which the AFP news agency was able to view on Monday. According to a ministry spokesman, the attackers gained access to Finance Ministry computers and some documents through an external security service provider at the beginning of December.

However, the documents were not subject to any level of secrecy, the Finance Ministry said. Accordingly, the authority was informed about the incident by its provider BeyondTrust. He then worked with the security authorities to assess the extent of the attack. The cybersecurity services targeted by the attackers have been taken offline. It is still a “serious IT security incident”.

There was “no indication” that the attacker had further access to IT systems or information from the Ministry of Finance, it said. The Ministry of Finance did not initially provide any further information about which area of the department was affected. However, it announced further information within the next 30 days.

In its letter to the US Senate Banking Committee, the ministry describes the incident as being caused by an actor supported by the Chinese state. This actor is responsible for serious cyber attacks in the APT (Advanced Persistent Threat) category.

In March, the USA, Great Britain and New Zealand accused China of a series of cyber attacks on state institutions in recent years. In February, the US authorities announced that they had thwarted a Chinese-backed cyber attack on important infrastructure, including communications, energy and water supplies.

As early as May 2023, the USA and other Western allies accused Beijing of using the state-sponsored hacker group “Volt Typhoon” to infiltrate important infrastructure in the United States. China has always rejected the allegations.