The US Treasury Department was hacked
The US Treasury Department suffered a “major” security incident after a China state-sponsored hacker broke into the third-party remote management software it uses, as reported earlier by The New York Times.
In a letter to lawmakers seen by The Verge, the Treasury Department said BeyondTrust, the company behind its remote management software, notified the agency of a breach on December 8th.
The threat actor stole a key used by BeyondTrust “to secure a cloud-based service used to remotely provide technical support for Treasury Departmental Offices (DO) end users.” With the key, they overrode the security to remotely access those users’ workstations and “some unclassified documents” they maintained.
The Treasury Department said it worked with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the FBI following the attack, which has been attributed to a China state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) hacker. “The compromised BeyondTrust service has been taken offline and there is no evidence indicating the threat actor has continued access to Treasury systems or information,” US Treasury Department spokesperson Michael Gwin said in a statement to The Verge.
The attack seems to be linked to a security incident BeyondTrust disclosed earlier this month, impacting customers using its remote support software. At the time, BeyondTrust attributed the attack to a compromised API key for its remote support software, adding that it “immediately revoked the API key, notified known impacted customers, and suspended those instances the same day.” The Verge reached out to BeyondTrust with a request for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.
“Treasury takes very seriously all threats against our systems, and the data it holds,” Gwin said. “Over the last four years, Treasury has significantly bolstered its cyber defense, and we will continue to work with both private and public sector partners to protect our financial system from threat actors.”
The US Treasury Department suffered a “major” security incident after a China state-sponsored hacker broke into the third-party remote management software it uses, as reported earlier by The New York Times. In a letter to lawmakers seen by The Verge, the Treasury Department said BeyondTrust, the company behind its remote…
Recent Posts
- AI leaders call for tougher protections against AI-aided bioweapons
- 5 Best Smart Speakers (2026): Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri
- I’m an outdoors expert — here are 9 easy-pitch tents I’d recommend for a fuss-free camping trip
- Samsung’s updated Health app unsurprisingly comes with new AI-powered features
- Amazon develops a warehouse robot workers can speak to
Archives
- June 2026
- May 2026
- April 2026
- March 2026
- February 2026
- January 2026
- December 2025
- November 2025
- October 2025
- September 2025
- August 2025
- July 2025
- June 2025
- May 2025
- April 2025
- March 2025
- February 2025
- January 2025
- December 2024
- November 2024
- October 2024
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023