China hacked US Treasury Department to access offices and documents, agency says

Chinese hackers gained remote access to the offices of the US Treasury Department and anonymous documents after compromising a third-party software services provider, the agency said Monday.

The department did not provide details on how many workplaces have been accessed and what type of documents the hackers may have obtained, but said in a letter to lawmakers disclosing the breach that “there is currently no evidence that the threat actor is continuing to access Treasury information.”

“The Department of Finance takes very seriously all threats to our systems, and the information they hold,” the department said.

“Over the past four years, the Treasury Department has significantly strengthened its cyber defenses, and we will continue to work with both private and public sector partners to protect our financial system from malicious actors.”

The letter described the robbery as “a major incident.”

The department said it became aware of the problem on Dec. 8 when a third-party software service provider, BeyondTrust, reported that hackers had stolen a key used by a vendor that helped it install a program and gain remote access to multiple employee workstations.

The disrupted service has been taken offline, and there is no evidence that the hackers still have access to the department's information, Aditi Hardikar, assistant secretary of the Treasury, said in a letter Monday to Senate Banking Committee leaders.

The department said it is working with the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the hacking is said to be carried out by Chinese criminals.

It didn't spread.

The revelations come as US officials continue to grapple with the outbreak of China's massive cyberespionage campaign known as Salt Storm that has given Beijing officials access to the private documents and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans.

A senior official of the White House said on Friday that the number of telecommunications companies affected by this hack has increased to nine.