U.S. Treasury says it was hacked by China in ‘major incident’

A Chinese state-sponsored hacker has broken into the U.S. Treasury Department’s systems, accessing employee workstations and some unclassified documents, American officials have said. The breach occurred in early December and was made public in a letter penned by the Treasury Department to lawmakers notifying them of the incident. The U.S. agency characterized the breach as a “major incident”, and said it had been working with the FBI and other agencies to investigate the impact. A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington DC told BBC News that the accusation is part of a “smear attack” and was made “without any factual basis.” The Treasury Department said in its letter to lawmakers that the China-based actor was able to override security via a key used by a third-party service provider that offers remote technical support to its employees. The compromised third-party service – called BeyondTrust – has since been taken offline, officials said. They added that there is no evidence to suggest the hacker has continued to access Treasury Department information since.