Chinese hackers infiltrate US Treasury — what they were after
Share
A hacker attack was carried out against the US Treasury Department's office responsible for imposing and managing economic sanctions. US officials believe that it was an attack by Chinese hackers.
This was reported by the Washington Post, citing US officials.
Why Chinese hackers targeted the Ministry of Finance
According to the newspaper's sources, this office is considered one of the most important instruments of US national security. In addition, the attackers also tried to gain access to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the Office of the Secretary of the Treasury.
Experts believe that such activities may indicate China's desire to obtain intelligence about the United States, its economic strategies, and plans to impose sanctions. The main target of the hackers was probably Chinese companies that could be subject to financial sanctions by the United States.
The attack also resulted in compromised access to the Financial Research Office of the Ministry of Finance. According to the Ministry, all the documents accessed by the hackers were unclassified, and there is no reason to believe that the attackers retain access to the Ministry's systems.
Chinese officials denied the allegations, saying that China always opposes any form of hacking.
Earlier, we reported that despite the attack by Russian hackers on Ukraine's state registries and databases, no personal data was lost. It should be borne in mind that this was indeed a very powerful attack, which had not been seen before.
In addition, a number of French city and regional Internet resources became inaccessible due to hacker attacks. Among the victims are the websites of Marseille, Tarbes, and the Haute-Garonne department.
