The U.S. Treasury Department announced on Monday that it had fallen victim to a significant cybersecurity breach, wherein Chinese hackers managed to remotely access several workstations and unclassified documents. The breach was facilitated through a third-party software service provider, BeyondTrust, which alerted the Treasury on December 8 about the theft of a key that allowed hackers to bypass security measures.

While officials did not disclose the number of workstations affected or the nature of the documents accessed, they insisted that there is currently no evidence indicating that the hackers still retain access to the Treasury's systems. A spokesperson for the department noted, “Treasury takes very seriously all threats against our systems and the data it holds,” emphasizing the ongoing efforts to bolster cybersecurity over the past four years.

The investigation into the incident is being conducted in collaboration with the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. However, Beijing has refuted the allegations, labeling them as 'groundless' and asserting its commitment to combating cyberattacks.

This breach is part of a larger pattern of cybersecurity threats attributed to Chinese state-sponsored hackers, with parallels drawn to ongoing campaigns like Salt Typhoon, which targeted telecommunication entities. As investigations progress, the Treasury remains focused on assessing the full scale of this breach, which raises significant concerns over national cybersecurity.

For further details, read the full articles on Indiatimes.