The US Treasury Department has reported that it has been the victim of a “major cybersecurity incident” attributed to hackers allegedly linked to the Chinese government, an accusation that the Asian giant has distanced itself from on Tuesday.
The US Treasury reported this incident in a letter sent to Congress and in which it explains that it became aware of it on December 8, when an external software service provider, BeyondTrust, warned it that a third party had obtained the key to access certain information, according to the text collected by the Bloomberg agency.
Various North American agencies, as well as the Intelligence services, are now collaborating in the investigations to try to clarify what happened, although Washington already assumes that the cyberattack is the work of hackers linked to Beijing.
China’s Foreign Ministry has denied what it calls “unsubstantiated” accusations, according to one of its spokespeople, Mao Ning. She has insisted that Beijing opposes such cyber activities and has accused other countries of stirring up such allegations for political purposes, according to official media.
In fact, such accusations and responses have been a constant between the United States and China in recent years.
