Cyber Thieves Nab US Treasury Files via Hacked Support Service

Earlier this month, hackers linked to China managed to sneak into the US Treasury Department's computers. They didn't do it directly, though. Instead, they targeted a third-party cybersecurity company called BeyondTrust. By getting into BeyondTrust's system, the hackers could access some of the Treasury's workstations and grab a few unclassified documents. How did they pull it off? They got their hands on a special key that BeyondTrust uses to secure a cloud-based service. This service helps the Treasury's tech support team fix problems remotely. With the key, the hackers could bypass the service's security and peek into certain Treasury computers.

So, what's the damage? Fortunately, there's no sign that the hackers can still get into the Treasury's systems. As soon as BeyondTrust noticed the breach, they alerted the Treasury, who then called in the big guns: the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and law enforcement. They're all working together to figure out what happened and how bad it is. At the time of writing, neither BeyondTrust, CISA, nor the FBI had commented on the situation.

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