Jake Bleiberg
A growing roster of political figures, US government agencies and companies that provide critical services have one thing in common: They have allegedly been hacked by China.
The latest victim is the US Treasury Department, which disclosed on Monday that Chinese state-sponsored hackers had breached its network via a third-party provider, accessing some unclassified documents.
While details of the hack remain scant, cybersecurity experts say it confirms what US intelligence officials warned earlier this year, that China is the “most active and persistent cyber threat to US government, private-sector and critical infrastructure networks.”
“The Russians get a lot of attention because of the use of disruptive cyberattacks,” said Adam Segal, director of the Council on Foreign Relations’ Digital and Cyberspace Policy Program, referring to Russia-linked hacks on the largest fuel pipeline in the US and a satellite network in Ukraine. “But the Chinese are the longer-term threat because of their technology and the scope and scale of their operations.”
Chinese officials have long denied US allegations of state-sponsored cyberattacks, and a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson called the claims that it’s behind the Treasury hack “unwarranted and groundless.”
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