Chinese hacker: Recently, a cyber attack on the US Treasury Department by Chinese state-sponsored hackers has been revealed. According to officials, hackers broke into the systems of a third-party software provider of the Treasury Department and accessed several workstations and unclassified documents.
This cyber attack took place at the beginning of 8th December. During this time, Beyond Trust, a third-party software provider, informed the Treasury Department that hackers had gained remote access to several workstations by bypassing their security. During this time, hackers had stolen one of the keys used to protect the service. This incident has been declared a major cyber security incident, and the FBI and other agencies are thoroughly investigating the matter.
Affected systems and documents
The Treasury Department has not yet provided information on how many workstations have been affected. What type of documents or data has been accessed. However, the department has said that so far there is no evidence that the hackers have continuous access to treasury information.
Treasury’s response and safeguards
The Treasury Department has taken this service offline. He claims that the hackers no longer have control over any information of the department. Assistant Treasury Secretary Aditi Hardikar said that the Treasury takes cyber security threats to its systems very seriously. In the last four years, the department has strengthened its cyber defense system. They are working together with private and public sectors to protect their financial systems from such attacks.
Chinese cyber espionage and growing concerns
This incident has deepened the disputes related to cyber attacks between America and China. Recently, in a cyber attack named Salt Typhoon, Chinese spies hacked the networks of many American telecommunication companies. Under these attacks, people’s call records and personal communications were passed on to Chinese government officials. On Friday, a top White House official revealed that the number of companies affected by this cyber espionage has reached 9.
Also read: H-1B Visa: Why is there an uproar in America, why is India on target, what will be the impact on India?