A China-related attack on the US Treasury Department is said to have targeted its anti-corruption office

US Treasury Department he told the councilors in a letter back in December that its records and workplace had been accessed by an outside party in a security breach. It described the attack as a “major cyber security incident” and was attributed to a “Chinese state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat actor.” Now, The Washington Post has said that the perpetrators infiltrated a “highly sensitive office” within the Treasury that oversees the thinking and execution of the US government.

Like The Post he explains, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has some important information that can be very useful to the government of another country. Even if the hackers only stole anonymous information, they could still find out what they need. He would also have stolen evidence that the commission had collected in the investigation of organizations that the government was considering punishing. Overall, the attackers would have had enough information to give them an idea of ​​how the US makes sanctions against foreign organizations.

In addition to OFAC, the Office of the Secretary of the Treasury and the Office of Financial Intelligence were also involved in the breach. The attackers broke into the Treasury system by obtaining a key used by BeyondTrust, a cloud-based service that supports the department.

The US government has said that most of the cyberattacks on its agencies and American companies were caused by those sponsored by the Chinese government over the years. Last year, the FBI accused “actors affiliated with the PRC” for a significant damage to the US telecom industry. The actors, a group known as Salt Typhoon, are said to be targeting the cellphones of diplomats, government officials and other people associated with the presidential campaign. According to The PostChinese officials have called allegations of their country’s involvement in the Treasury Department conspiracy “absurd” and insisted that their government “always opposes all forms of terrorism.”