US Treasury accuses China of hacking computer systems

Washington. The United States Treasury Department assured yesterday that a Chinese-sponsored agent is behind a cyber breach that allowed access to some of its workstations, according to a letter sent to Congress to which AFP had access.

The incident occurred earlier this month, when the attacker infiltrated the systems of a third-party cybersecurity services provider and remotely accessed the government agency’s computers and some unclassified documents, a Treasury spokesperson added.

The hackers compromised cybersecurity services provider BeyondTrust and were able to access documents, according to the letter. The incident has been attributed to a Chinese state-sponsored advanced persistent threat actoradded the Treasury.

It noted that BeyondTrust had alerted it to the breach on December 8 and was working with the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the FBI to assess the impact of the attack.