The US Treasury Department says a Chinese state-backed gamer hacked its computers

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A Chinese state-backed actor compromised the US Treasury Department through a third-party service provider in a “major cyber security incident”, the agency said on Monday.

In a letter to the Senate banking committee seen by the Financial Times, the Treasury Department said it was notified on December 8 by software company BeyondTrust that a hacker had breached several remote government systems through to get the security key and also get access. unclassified documents on them.

“Based on the available indications, this incident has been linked to an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor sponsored by the Chinese state,” the letter said. “According to Treasury policy, an APT intrusion is considered a major cyber security incident.”

The department said it is working with the FBI and other investigators in the broader intelligence community to determine what led to the attack. It also says “at this time there is no evidence to suggest that the threat actor has continued to access Treasury information”.

In a statement on Monday, a Treasury spokesman said the agency “takes seriously all threats against our systems, and the data they hold”.

“We will continue to work with private and public partners to protect our financial system from threat actors,” the person added.

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The breach is the latest cyber security breach involving US targets allegedly made to benefit China.

In October, the Biden administration said it was to investigate what the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said was “unauthorized access to commercial telecommunications services by actors affiliated with the People’s Republic of China”. Hackers were reportedly targeting the phones of president-elect Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance ahead of the US election.

It highlights the level of concern, the business sector in September you have taken steps limiting China’s access to American data by proposing a ban on Chinese software and hardware for cars with built-in internet connectivity.