Chinese hackers attempted to breach specific email accounts belonging to the State and Commerce Departments in the weeks leading up to Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken’s visit to Beijing in June, as confirmed by U.S. officials on Wednesday.
The investigation into the activities of these Chinese hackers, who are believed to have ties to China’s military or intelligence services, is still ongoing, according to American officials. However, they have downplayed the possibility of sensitive information being stolen, emphasizing that no classified emails or cloud systems were compromised. The State Department’s cybersecurity team initially discovered the intrusion.
Multiple officials have stated that the attack targeted individual email accounts rather than a large-scale data exfiltration, which Chinese hackers have been suspected of in the past. The Biden administration has chosen not to disclose the identities of the officials who were targeted by the hackers.
Microsoft, which revealed the hack on Tuesday, reported that it began in May based on their investigation. The State Department detected the intrusion on June 16 and promptly informed Microsoft, just before Mr. Blinken’s trip to Beijing, according to a U.S. official. He departed from Washington that evening.
The visit was of great significance to both Washington and Beijing, as it marked the first visit to China by a U.S. secretary of state in five years and aimed to establish high-level communication channels and improve deteriorating relations. Since then, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen has also visited Beijing, and John Kerry, the special envoy for climate, is scheduled to arrive there on Sunday for four days of talks.
President Biden and China’s leader, Xi Jinping, agreed during a meeting in Bali, Indonesia, last November to work towards stabilizing relations. However, tensions between the two nations escalated when the Pentagon discovered and shot down a Chinese spy balloon floating over the continental United States in early February. Mr. Blinken canceled his trip to China during that incident, and a few weeks later, he publicly accused Beijing of considering providing military assistance to Russia for use in Ukraine.
A senior State Department official, speaking anonymously to discuss the sensitive incident, stated that the hack did not initially appear to be directly related to Mr. Blinken’s rescheduled trip. Other officials cautioned that the investigation into whether any material had been stolen by the hackers was still in its early stages.
In a statement on Wednesday, the State Department announced that after detecting “anomalous activity,” the government took measures to secure the systems and will continue to closely monitor and promptly respond to any further activity.
The Commerce Department, according to a spokesperson, became aware of the breach of its cloud-based email when informed by Microsoft, who had started searching for other compromises after being alerted by the State Department. The Commerce Department has been leading efforts to implement export controls to prevent…
2023-07-12 16:49:34
Link from www.nytimes.com
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