Treasury department confirms breach by Chinese hackers

The U.S. Treasury department has confirmed in a statement that the agency was breached by Chinese state-backed hackers, who were able to access data on some of its workstations in early December.

The hackers were able to steal a key from BeyondTrust, a third party provider, and access unclassified information from the workstations. The agency referred to the breach as a "major incident."

The compromised service is no longer being used, and the agency does not believe data is still being accessed by the hackers.

“Treasury takes very seriously all threats against our systems, and the data it holds,” the agency said in a statement.

“Over the last four years, Treasury has significantly bolstered its cyber defense, and we will continue to work with both private and public sector partners to protect our financial system from threat actors,” it continued.

In compliance with current laws, the agency is required to provide more information about the breach within 30 days, and has said it will do so.