The U.S. Treasury Department has revealed that a state-sponsored Chinese hacking operation successfully breached third-party software to access desktop computers of Treasury employees, marking what officials are calling “a major incident.”
In a letter obtained by NBC News, Aditi Hardikar, assistant secretary for management of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, informed Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs about the breach, which was discovered on Dec. 8.
The accessed information included unclassified documents, according to the letter. However, China has denied the allegations made by the U.S.
In response to the breach, the U.S. Treasury has been collaborating with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the FBI, and other intelligence community members to fully investigate the incident and assess its impact.
A Treasury spokesperson confirmed that the compromised service has been taken offline and there is no evidence suggesting continued access by the threat actor to Treasury systems or information.
The letter also revealed that fellow agencies helped identify the breach as originating from Chinese hackers. A supplemental report on the incident is expected to be released in 30 days.