Chinese government hackers who breached the US Treasury Department last month targeted the office that administers economic sanctions, according to report by newspaper The Washington Post.
The hackers targeted the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the Office of Financial Research and also the office of US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the paper reported, citing unnamed US government officials.
The department earlier this week disclosed in a letter to lawmakers that hackers stole unclassified documents in a “major incident.” It did not specify which users or departments were affected.
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The Post quoted its sources as saying that a top area of interest for the Chinese government would be Chinese entities that the US government may be considering designating for financial sanctions.
“Gaining access to even unclassified information held by OFAC could provide the Chinese government with valuable intelligence, as such information is used to build a case for sanctioning organisations and individuals,” David Laufman, a former sanctions enforcement official told newspaper.
Meanwhile, the computer of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was not known to be compromised, the newspaper said, citing two unnamed US officials.
The Treasury letter earlier this week said hackers compromised third-party cybersecurity service provider BeyondTrust, which allowed them to override security protocols and access a number of the department’s workstations.
Beijing says US claims ‘irrational’
Chinese firms, individuals and entities have been a frequent target for US sanctions, which Washington has used as a key tool in its foreign policy towards Beijing.
The United States considers China’s its biggest foreign policy challenge, and last month Yellen said Washington would not rule out sanctions on Chinese banks as it seeks to reduce Russia’s oil revenue and access to foreign supplies to fuel its war in Ukraine.
Asked about the paper’s report, Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said the “irrational” US claim was “without any factual basis” and represented “smear attacks” against Beijing.
The statement said China “combats all forms of cyberattacks” and did not directly address the Washington Post’s reporting on specific targets.
The Treasury hack comes on the back of reports last month of Chinese hackers ‘infiltrating’ at least eight telecom operators in the United States.
One lawmakers described the breach as “the worst telecommunication hack” in US history, and security agencies warned American citizens and government officials to stick to encrypted communication channels instead of regular phone calls and text messages.
Officials that spoke to The Washington Post said the Chinese government had “been gaining access to critical infrastructure systems around the country to lay in wait in the event they one day want to physically disrupt those networks in a potential conflict with the West.”
- Reuters, with additional editing and inputs from Vishakha Saxena
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