Republican lawmakers are pressing the Biden administration for details regarding a recent cyberattack on the U.S. Treasury Department, attributed to Chinese state-sponsored hackers. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and Representative French Hill (R-AR), vice chair of the House Committee on Financial Services, have requested a briefing from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to address their concerns.
In a letter dated January 2, 2025, Scott and Hill emphasized the sensitivity of the information housed within the Treasury Department, including tax data, business ownership details, and suspicious activity reports. They stated, “This breach of federal government information is extremely concerning… The fact that a CCP-sponsored APT actor was able to access Treasury’s information systems is unacceptable and raises serious questions about the protocols for safeguarding sensitive federal government information from future cybersecurity incidents.”
The cyber intrusion, discovered on December 8, 2024, involved Chinese hackers remotely accessing several Treasury workstations and unclassified documents by exploiting vulnerabilities in third-party software provided by BeyondTrust. The Treasury Department has since taken the compromised services offline and is collaborating with the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to assess the breach’s impact.
China has denied involvement in the cyberattack. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning labeled the accusations as “groundless” and lacking evidence.
This incident adds to a series of cyber intrusions ate state-backed actors, including breaches of U.S. telecommunications companies and the State Department. Lawmakers are urging the administration to implement robust cybersecurity measures to protect sensitive government information from foreign adversaries.