The US Treasury Department reported that hackers with the support of Chinese authorities penetrated US Treasury systems and gained access to classified documents. In a letter sent to the congressmen, the ministry assessed this incident as serious, reports BBC. China has denied these accusations.
The US Treasury wrote in a letter to congressmen that hacking groups based in China are behind this attack. The attackers are said to have bypassed security using a key used by an external service provider.
The BBC portal emphasized that the US Treasury is responsible for imposing sanctions against China in recent years.
Hackers were looking for information
The hackers, whose activities were revealed on December 2, allegedly gained remote access to several workstations and some confidential documents protected by users. It is not clear what the documents contain or how long the hackers may have had access to the system. It was speculated in the media that the attackers were not trying to steal money from the American budget, but were looking for information of interest to them.
China has denied these accusations. Beijing’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the People’s Republic of China “has always opposed any kind of hacking attacks”, but “is even more opposed to the spread of false information against China for political purposes”, according to AFP.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said on Tuesday that Beijing has repeatedly “taken a similar stance on such baseless allegations that are not supported by any evidence.”
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