China hacked the Treasury Department: 'Major' cyberattack reported

The Biden Administration revealed the existence of a cyberattack against the Treasury Department, led by Janet Yellen. According to The New York Times, the hacker in question is linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and accessed government employees' workstations and unclassified documents.

The Treasury Department sent a letter to the leaders of the Senate Banking Committee explaining the nature of the situation, which took place on December 8.

"Based on available indicators, the incident has been attributed to a China state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor. In accordance with Treasury policy, intrusions attributable to an APT are considered a major cybersecurity incident," the letter reads.

At the same time, they clarified that the affected service was disconnected and that there is no evidence that the Chinese hacker still has access to Treasury information. They also reported that they were working with the FBI and the Infrastructure Security and Cybersecurity Agency to investigate the ultimate scope of the attack.

"Once Treasury was alerted by the service provider, we immediately contacted Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and have worked with law enforcement partners across the government to ascertain the impact of this incident," a spokesman said in a separate statement.

"Treasury takes very seriously all threats against our systems, and the data it holds. Over the last four years, Treasury has significantly bolstered its cyber defense, and we will continue to work with both private and public sector partners to protect our financial system from threat actors," they continued.

The case comes as U.S. officials grapple with the fallout from a massive Chinese cyber espionage campaign, which began in 2020. According to the AP, Salt Typhoon, the espionage campaign, gave Pekin officials access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of citizens.