U.S. Treasury says its computers were hacked by a Chinese 'threat actor' in a 'major incident'

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Source: NBC News

Dec. 30, 2024, 4:50 PM EST


he U.S. Treasury department said a state-sponsored Chinese hacking operation was able to use third-party software to access the desktop computers of Treasury employees in what the department is calling "a major incident."

In a letter seen by NBC News, Aditi Hardikar, assistant secretary for management of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, wrote that the office was notified on Dec. 8 of the breach. The letter is addressed to Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.

Hardikar wrote that the U.S. Treasury was told by "a third-party software service provider, BeyondTrust, that a threat actor had gained access to a key used by the vendor to secure a cloud-based service used to remotely provide technical support for Treasury Departmental Offices (DO) end users." With this access, the "threat actor" was able to override certain security measures and access the department office user workstations. The information accessed by the "threat actor" was unclassified documents.

The U.S. Treasury has been working with Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other members of the intelligence community, as well as "third-party forensic investigators to fully characterize the incident and determine its overall impact," according to the letter.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/us-treasury-says-computers-hacked-chinese-threat-actor-rcna185809