Lawmakers Demand Immediate Briefing On Treasury Cyber Breach By China
Republican lawmakers are calling for urgent answers after a Chinese state-sponsored hacking group infiltrated unclassified systems at the Treasury Department. The breach, first identified in early December, has raised significant concerns over the security of sensitive government information.
In a Dec. 31 letter, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and Rep. French Hill (R-AR) urged Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to provide a full briefing by Jan. 10. The lawmakers described the breach as “unacceptable” and emphasized that the department holds critical data, including tax information and reports on suspicious financial activity.
The attack was flagged by BeyondTrust, a third-party software provider, which reported that hackers stole a key used to access Treasury systems. Treasury confirmed that the compromised service has been taken offline and stated there is no evidence of ongoing access by the attackers.
A Treasury spokesperson said the department has strengthened its cybersecurity defenses over the past four years and is cooperating with the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to investigate the breach. However, lawmakers are demanding details on what measures are being implemented to prevent future incidents.
Scott and Hill questioned Treasury’s preparedness, asking what warnings it had about potential vulnerabilities and how the department responded after the breach was detected. They stressed the importance of safeguarding data from adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party.
The breach highlights broader cybersecurity challenges facing U.S. government agencies, particularly as they work to protect critical systems from increasingly sophisticated foreign threats.
