Washington, DC
\nBeijing on Tuesday hit back at accusations that a China state-sponsored actor was behind a cyber breach at the US Treasury Department, calling the claims \u201cgroundless\u201d.
\nThe Treasury said the attack resulted in access to some of its workstations, according to a letter to Congress seen by AFP.
\nAccording to the Treasury, the incident happened earlier this month, when the actor compromised a third-party cybersecurity service provider and was able to remotely access the workstations and some unclassified documents.
\nChina denied the claims, with the foreign ministry saying Beijing \u201chas always opposed all forms of hacker attacks, and we are even more opposed to the spread of false information against China for political purposes\u201d.
\n\u201cWe have stated our position many times regarding such groundless accusations that lack evidence,\u201d foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.
\nThe Treasury contacted the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency after it was alerted of the situation by its provider BeyondTrust, and has been working with law enforcement to ascertain the impact.
\n\u201cThe compromised BeyondTrust service has been taken offline and there is no evidence indicating the threat actor has continued access to Treasury systems or information,\u201d the department\u2019s spokesperson said.
\nIn its letter to the leadership of the Senate Banking Committee, the Treasury said: \u201cBased on available indicators, the incident has been attributed to a China state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor.\u201d An APT refers to a cyberattack where an intruder establishes and maintains unauthorised access to a target, remaining undetected for a sustained period of time.
\nThe department did not provide further details on what was affected by the breach, but said more information would be released in a supplemental report at a later date.
\n\u201cTreasury takes very seriously all threats against our systems, and the data it holds,\u201d the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n
Alarm over hacks
\nSeveral countries, notably the United States, have voiced alarm in recent years at what they say is Chinese-government-backed hacking activity targeting their governments, militaries and businesses.
\nBeijing rejects the allegations, and has previously said that it opposes and cracks down on all forms of cyberattacks.
\nIn September, the US Justice Department said it had neutralised a cyber-attack network that affected 200,000 devices worldwide, alleging it was run by hackers backed by the Chinese government.
\nIn February, US authorities also said they had dismantled a network of hackers known as \u201cVolt Typhoon\u201d.
\nThe group was said to be targeting key public sector infrastructure like water treatment plants and transportation systems at the behest of China.
\nIn 2023, tech giant Microsoft said Chinese-based hackers seeking intelligence information breached the email accounts of a number of US government agencies.
\nThe group, Storm-0558, had breached email accounts at approximately 25 organisations and government agencies.
\nAccounts belonging to the State Department and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo were among those hacked in that breach.
\nFollow Dawn Business on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook for insights on business, finance and tech from Pakistan and across the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington, DC Beijing on Tuesday hit back at accusations that a China state-sponsored actor was behind a cyber breach at the US Treasury Department, calling the claims \u201cgroundless\u201d. The Treasury said the attack resulted in access to some of its workstations, according to a letter to Congress seen by AFP. According to the Treasury, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452852,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-452842","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n