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Earlier today, the Treasury Department notified the Senate Banking Committee of a “major incident” involving hacking of Treasury computers. The letter is embedded below. It says, in part:

On December 8, 2024, Treasury was notified by a third-party software service provider, BeyondTrust, that a threat actor had gained access to a key used by the vendor to secure a cloud-based service used to remotely provide technical support for Treasury Departmental Offices (DO) end users. With access to the stolen key, the threat actor was able override the service’s security, remotely access certain Treasury DO user workstations, and access certain unclassified documents maintained by those users.

The use of security “keys” is obsolete technology on which, unfortunately, we continue to rely. Far better security concepts are available, and perhaps this and other recent hacking incidents will give our government a sense of urgency to upgrade cybersecurity across the board.

Based on available indicators, the incident has been attributed to a China state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor.

No surprise there. The Chinese have been testing our cyber defenses lately, and our defenses have been found wanting. More:

Hackers linked to China have accessed workstations and viewed documents at the US Treasury, the department revealed on Monday.

It is the latest in a series of Chinese state-backed cyberattacks on US targets, with hackers also believed to have accessed the communications of political and government figures in recent months.
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The series of cybersecurity breaches has nonetheless raised fears of a co-ordinated Chinese espionage effort, which Washington is struggling to contain.

On Friday, the White House announced that it had identified a ninth US telecommunications firm hit by hackers, who had in recent months accessed private texts and phone conversations, including those of prominent but unnamed figures. The FBI has said that most of the targets were “primarily involved in government or political activity” in an operation by a group known as Salt Typhoon.

The New York Times has reported that the operation’s targets included Donald Trump and his incoming vice-president, JD Vance.

The “Biden administration” is of course hopeless, but maybe Donald Trump’s team will be able to figure out an appropriate response.

Currently, we are in a cybersecurity standoff with the Chinese, the Russians and others. We can read their “secure” communications, and they can read ours. The archaic system of “keys” needs to go, for urgent reasons of national security.

Technological breakthroughs in cybersecurity have been made, and if we implement them before the Chinese and Russians do, it will be much like the post-WWII environment, when we had nuclear weapons and they didn’t. If we can read their communications and they can’t read ours, we would enjoy a similar advantage, that could guarantee peace for some years. Implementing radically improved cybersecurity technology should be a top priority of the incoming Trump administration.

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