Chinese government hackers reportedly targeted the highly sensitive sanctions division of the U.S. Treasury Department in a December cyberattack.
According to the Washington Post, state-sponsored hackers have targeted the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a government department that imposes economic and trade sanctions on countries and individuals, in a move that the U.S. government may be considering. Aimed at the possibility of accessing information from Chinese organizations. Designation of financial sanctions.
A Chinese-backed hacker group broke into the U.S. Treasury Department in December, gaining access to employee workstations and confidential documents, and also breached the Treasury Department's Financial Investigation Service and the Treasury Secretary's Office, according to the report.
The cyberattack, which the Treasury Department has described as a “major cybersecurity incident,” came to light after BeyondTrust, a third-party software provider of identity management tools, alerted the Treasury Department to the cybersecurity incident on December 8.
The U.S. Treasury Department did not immediately respond to TechCrunch's questions.