BEIJING:  , Beijing on Tuesday ( Dec 31 ) hit back at accusations that a China state-sponsored actor was behind a cyber breach at the US Treasury Department, calling the claims “groundless”.
According to a letter to Congress seen by AFP, the Treasury claimed the attack gave access to some of its desktops.
The professional compromised a third-party security service provider earlier this month, according to the Treasury, and was able to access the workstations and some unclassified documents electronically.
China refuted the allegations, saying that Beijing “has generally opposed all kinds of thief attacks, and we are actually more opposed to the dissemination of false information against China for political reasons.”
According to Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry,” we have stated our position numerous occasions regarding these unsupported allegations.”
After BeyondTrust gave the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency an alert, the Treasury has been coordinating with law enforcement to assess the effects.
The agency’s spokesperson stated that the affected BeyondTrust company has been taken online and that there is no evidence that the threat actor has continued to get Treasury systems or information.
In its letter to the leadership of the Senate Banking Committee, the Treasury said:” Based on available indicators, the incident has been attributed to a China state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat ( APT ) actor”.
An APT refers to a attack in which an attacker establishes and maintains illegal access to a destination while remaining undetected for a long period of period.
The office did not provide additional information about the breach’s effects, but it said more information would be made available in a supplemental record at a later time.
” Treasury takes very seriously all challenges against our methods, and the information it holds”, the spokesperson added.