Beijing denies involvement in US treasury cyber-attack
Share:
China says claims a state-sponsored actor was behind cyber breach earlier this month are ‘groundless’. Beijing has hit back at accusations that a China state-sponsored actor was behind a cyber breach at the US treasury department, calling the claims “groundless”.
The breach was orchestrated via a third-party cybersecurity service provider. Hackers were able to gain access to a key used by the vendor to override certain parts of the system, according to a letter the treasury department sent to lawmakers on Monday that was reviewed by the Guardian.
According to the treasury, the incident happened earlier this month, when the actor was able to remotely access the workstations and some unclassified documents. On Tuesday, China denied the claims, with the foreign ministry saying Beijing “has always opposed all forms of hacker attacks, and we are even more opposed to the spread of false information against China for political purposes”.
“We have stated our position many times regarding such groundless accusations that lack evidence,” the foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said. The treasury contacted the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency after it was alerted of the situation by the third-party provider, and has been working with law enforcement to ascertain the impact.
