US reports cyberattack on Treasury Department, points finger at China

Washington [US], January 1: The US Treasury Department says it was the target of a Chinese cyberattack, according to US media.
In a letter to members of Congress cited by US media on Monday, the department said that on December 8, it was informed by a software company that a hacker had obtained remote access to workstations of government employees and documents on them. The documents were not classified as secret, it said.
A Chinese state-sponsored actor was behind the "major cybersecurity incident," the Treasury Department said in the letter, according to the New York Times and other major outlets.
"Based on available indicators, the incident has been attributed to a China state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor," the New York Times cited the letter as saying.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry rejected the accusations against Beijing and stated that there was no evidence for them. China has always rejected all forms of hacking and rejects the dissemination of false information against China for political purposes, said spokeswoman Mao Ning in Beijing.
The US has been accusing China of state-sponsored hacking for years, which China has always denied. (DPA)
Source: Qatar Tribune