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This episode comes at a delicate time, just as the Biden White House is facing one of the most widespread and damaging attacks on infrastructure in the U. S. cyber age.
By Ana Swanson and David E. Sanger
Report from Washington
One of China’s intelligence agencies hacked the U.S. Treasury Department, gaining access to the workstations of government employees and unclassified documents, the Biden administration said on Monday, the latest in a series of embarrassing surveillance operations against major American institutions.
From the first limited account of the Treasure episode, it is unclear exactly what the pirates were looking for. But senior officials with access to intelligence on the breach said it was purely an espionage operation and was not part of other Chinese efforts to insert malicious computer code. on power grids and water systems, giving them the ability to shut down critical U. S. networks and infrastructure.
In a letter informing lawmakers of the episode, the Treasury Department said it had been notified on Dec. 8 by a third-party software service company, BeyondTrust, that the hacker had obtained a security key that allowed it to gain remote access to certain Treasury workstations and documents on them.
“Based on available indicators, the incident has been attributed to a China state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor,” the letter said. “In accordance with Treasury policy, intrusions attributable to an APT are considered a major cybersecurity incident.”
Top Chinese officials have a deep interest in the activities of the Treasury Department, which oversees sensitive data about global financial systems — and estimates of China’s own troubled economy. The department also implements sanctions against Chinese firms, including, in recent times, those aiding Russia in the war against Ukraine.
Earlier this year, Chinese intelligence hacked email accounts used through Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo as she made decisions on new export controls on complex semiconductors and other key technologies, with the goal of slowing their acquisition to through Chinese companies. Similar efforts have been made against targets within the State Department.
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