The U.S. Treasury Department has been targeted in a cyber attack. Washington speaks of a “serious incident” and points the finger at China.
Via a letter to the House of Representatives, which Reuters was able to access, the ministry reported that it had been the target of a cyber attack. The hackers allegedly got in through the systems of a third-party provider BeyondTrust and made off with internal documents. The stolen documents did not contain classified information.
Washington and Beijing are hurling accusations and allegations at each other. According to the Ministry of Finance, there are strong indications that the perpetrators were working at the behest of the Chinese government. The ministry is working with the FBI to investigate the impact of the attack. Beijing is reacting bitten, calling the allegations “defamatory attacks on China without evidence.
Stolen key
The IT vendor involved, BeyondTrust, responded to Reuters that it noticed the attack on Dec. 8 and alerted police forces. The hackers came into possession of a key that gave them access to Ministry of Finance systems. Experts say it is a classic modus operandi of Chinese hackers to break into government targets through third parties.
Such was the case last year when Microsoft was the linchpin in a Chinese spying campaign on European and U.S. government agencies. The hackers then managed to get a runner for the Azure environment of the affected agencies. Microsoft faced fierce criticism for that incident. BeyondTrust, too, may have to come clean. A comprehensive incident report will be unveiled in Congress in the coming weeks.
Oil on the fire
The incident further strains the already strained U.S.-China relationship. The United States is tightening technology sanctions against China, which is biting back just as fiercely. Future Donald Trump has no intention of making peace.
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