The China-linked attack on the US Treasury reportedly targeted its sanctions office

US Department of Treasury He told lawmakers In a message dating back to last December, he reported that an external party had gained access to his documents and workstations in a security breach. It described the attack as a “major cybersecurity incident” and attributed it to a “Chinese state-sponsored advanced persistent threat actor.” now, The Washington Post It reported that bad actors had infiltrated a “highly sensitive office” within the Treasury Department responsible for discussing and administering US government sanctions.

like mail It shows that OFAC has some important information that could be very useful to the government of another country. While the hackers were only able to steal unclassified data, it is still possible that they were able to obtain the identities of potential sanctions targets. It is also possible that they stole pieces of evidence collected by the agency as part of its investigations into entities that the government is considering sanctions. Overall, the attackers would have obtained enough information to give them knowledge about how the United States develops sanctions against foreign entities.

In addition to OFAC, the Office of the Secretary of the Treasury and the Office of Financial Research were also affected by this hack. The attackers compromised the Treasury Department’s systems by accessing a key used by BeyondTrust, a cloud-based service that provides the department with technical support.

The US government has attributed numerous cyberattacks on its US agencies and companies to Chinese state-sponsored actors over the years. Just last year, the FBI blamed “PRC-affiliated actors” for the attack Massive hacking of American telecommunications companies. The group known as “Salt Typhoon” reportedly targeted the mobile devices of diplomats, government officials and other people associated with the two presidential campaigns. according to mailChinese officials described allegations that their country was involved in the attack on the Treasury Department as “baseless” and insisted that their government “has always opposed all forms of hacker attacks.”