Chinese hackers breached the US Treasury Department and stole documents

Chinese hackers breached the U.S. Treasury Department earlier this month and stole documents from its websites, according to a letter to lawmakers obtained by Reuters on Monday.

The message said the hackers breached a third-party cybersecurity provider and gained access to unclassified documents, calling it a "major incident."

After being alerted by cybersecurity provider BeyondTrust, the Treasury Department said it was working with the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the FBI to assess the impact of the breach.

A senior US official said weeks ago that a Chinese cyber-espionage and hacking group called Salt Typhoon had stolen a "significant amount" of Americans' metadata in a wide-ranging cyber-espionage campaign.

The official declined to provide specific numbers, but said China's access to U.S. telecommunications infrastructure was extensive, and that the breach was still ongoing.

Source: Reuters