US Treasury declares major incident after apparent state-sponsored Chinese
hack

Date:
Tue, 31 Dec 2024 11:35:09 +0000

Description:
Documents reportedly stolen in security breach targeting the US Treasury
Department.

FULL STORY

The US Treasury Department has confirmed that documents have been stolen and
systems have been breached in a cyber attack that it has dubbed a major
incident. The compromise occurred through a third party cybersecurity service
provider, BeyondTrust, which allowed remote access to key systems. 

Through this system, hackers were able to gain access used by the vendor to
override parts of the Treasury Departments systems, the agency confirmed in a
disclosure letter to Congress. The third-party system, which ordinarily 
offers remote technical support to employees, has since been taken offline. 

Initial assessments by the agency suggest the attack was carried out by a
China-based Advanced Persistent Threat Actor, officials said. China has 
called the accusation baseless, and said it "consistently opposes all forms 
of hacking".

A short-lived breach 

Suspicious activity was first spotted on December 2, and the Treasury was 
made aware of the hack on December 8 by BeyondTrust, although it took the
company three days to determine that it had been breached. 

Its not clear what type of files were taken, or what these files relate to,
but more details are expected to be revealed in the Treasurys 30-day
supplemental report. 

This attack follows a huge telecoms breach which targeted 9 major US
telecommunications firms and compromised millions of individuals. 

The telecoms breach, attributed to Chinese state-sponsored group, Salt
Typhoon, resulted in a vow of retribution from President-elect Trump, and
China also denied wrongdoing relating to this hack. 

"The US needs to stop using cyber security to smear and slander China, and
stop spreading all kinds of disinformation about the so-called Chinese 
hacking threats," said embassy spokesman for the Chinese embassy in 
Washington DC, Liu Pengyu. 

Via BBC

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Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/us-treasury-declares-major-incident-aft
er-apparent-state-sponsored-chinese-hack

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