The US Treasury has said it suffered a major data breach and blames state-sponsored Chinese hackers.
China has strongly denied carrying out a state-sponsored cyberattack against the US Treasury Department, following accusations on Monday that hackers accessed confidential files and workstations in what officials have called a “important” security breach.
On Tuesday, Mao Ning, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said that Beijing had made its position very clear on “Accusations so unfounded that they lack evidence.” The spokesperson stated that “China has always opposed all forms of hacker attacks, and we are even more opposed to the spread of false information against China for political purposes.”
The breach, discovered on December 8 by cybersecurity firm BeyondTrust, involved the theft of a security key that allowed unauthorized access to unclassified documents on Treasury Department systems. The department has since taken the affected machines offline and assured the public that there is no evidence to suggest continued access by hackers. US officials have accused Beijing but have not publicly revealed their evidence.
READ MORE:
Xi promises inevitable reunification with Taiwan
This incident comes on the heels of reports of a separate breach by an alleged Chinese hacking group called Salt Hurricane that infiltrated US telecommunications systems. Hackers reportedly accessed phone conversations and messages of text from US officials, including President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance. The Salt Hurricane breach specifically targeted the networks of major telecommunications companies such as AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen.
You can share this story on social networks:
