Chinese hackers accessed Secretary Yellen’s computer in Treasury breach

Chinese hackers breached the computer of U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen last month, gaining access to unclassified files, according to Bloomberg. The hackers reportedly accessed fewer than 50 files in the security breach.

Bloomberg, citing two sources familiar with the incident, reported that the breach also affected the computers of two of Yellen’s deputies: Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo and Acting Under Secretary Brad Smith.

The Department of the Treasury was notified of the breach on December 8, according to a letter sent to lawmakers by Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Management Aditi Hardikar.

BeyondTrust, a software access management provider, informed the Treasury that “a threat actor had gained access to a key used by the vendor to secure a cloud-based service used to remotely provide technical support for Treasury Departmental Offices (DO) end users,” Hardikar explained in her letter.

“Based on available indicators, the incident has been attributed to a China state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor,” Hardikar stated, which she classified the breach as a “major cybersecurity incident.”