Following the compromise of a third-party software service provider, Chinese hackers gained remote access to numerous US Treasury Department computers and unclassified data, the department said Monday. The department did not specify how many workstations were accessed or what documents the hackers may have obtained, but in a letter to lawmakers announcing the breach, it stated that “at this time there is no evidence indicating the threat actor has continued access to Treasury information.” “Treasury takes very seriously all threats against our systems, and the data it holds,” stated the government. “Over the last four years, Treasury has significantly bolstered its cyber defence, and we will continue to work with both private and public sector partners to protect our financial system from threat actors.”

Following the compromise of a third-party software service provider, Chinese hackers gained remote access to numerous US Treasury Department computers and unclassified data, the department said Monday. The department did not specify how many workstations were accessed or what documents the hackers may have obtained, but in a letter to lawmakers announcing the breach, it stated that “at this time there is no evidence indicating the threat actor has continued access to Treasury information.” “Treasury takes very seriously all threats against our systems, and the data it holds,” stated the government. “Over the last four years, Treasury has significantly bolstered its cyber defence, and we will continue to work with both private and public sector partners to protect our financial system from threat actors.”

The compromised service has since been taken offline, and there’s no evidence that the hackers still have access to department information, Aditi Hardikar, an assistant Treasury secretary, said in the letter Monday to leaders of the Senate Banking Committee. The department said it was working with the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and that the hack had been attributed to Chinese culprits. It did not elaborate.