China stole the documents in a “major” cyberattack, the US Treasury said

The US Treasury said in a letter to lawmakers on Monday that it was hit by a cyber attack in early December and that the department was linked to Chinese government hackers.

In a letter shared with top lawmakers in the US House of Representatives, TechCrunch sawThe Treasury said hackers gained remote access to the workstations of some Treasury employees and gained access to classified documents in what it described as a “major cyber security incident.”

The Treasury said Dec. 8 was informed by BeyondTrust, a company that provides identity acquisition and remote support technology for large organizations and government agencies, that hackers had “gained access to a key used by a vendor.” Treasury staff. BeyondTrust announced the incident at that timebut did not disclose how the key was obtained.

A spokesperson for BeyondTrust did not return a request for comment at press time.

The letter said the department had enlisted the help of the US cybersecurity agency CISA and that as of Dec. 30, there was “no evidence that the threat actor continued to have access to Treasury data.”

The Treasury confirmed in the letter that the breach involved a Chinese state-sponsored operation. advanced persistent threat the group expresses the support of the Chinese government. It was not clear which group was behind the intrusion, and a spokesman would not comment.

Treasury spokesman Michael Gwin said in a brief statement that hackers were able to “remotely access several Treasury user workstations and some classified documents stored by those users.”

“Treasury takes all threats to our systems and the data it holds very seriously. “Over the past four years, the Treasury 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 threat actors,” the spokesperson said.

This is the latest cyberattack linked to China to target the US government in recent months. Chinese-backed hackers nicknamed Salt Tycoon are one wave of cyber attacks Targeting US phone companies and internet giants, including AT&T and Verizon, to access the private communications of senior US government officials, including presidential candidates.

A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.