China Gov't Hacked OFAC, Report Says
The Office of Foreign Assets Control was one of multiple Treasury Department offices recently breached by Chinese government hackers, the Washington Post reported this week. Treasury reportedly disclosed the hack in a Dec. 30 letter to lawmakers, saying that it was still assessing the impact. The agency added that the documents accessed were unclassified and there was no evidence the hacker still has access to Treasury systems.
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A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson called the allegations “unwarranted and groundless,” saying Dec. 31 that it “opposes all forms of hacking, and in particular, we oppose spreading China-related disinformation motivated by political agenda.” A Treasury spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The U.S. has levied a host of financial sanctions on China through OFAC, including by designating Chinese officials for human rights abuses and Chinese companies for shipping sensitive items to Russia, buying Iranian oil, and more.
The reported hack of Treasury underscores congressional concerns about the security of data the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network plans to collect through its new beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting rules, Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., said Dec. 31.
Hill, the incoming chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said protection of BOI data must be "ironclad" and that lawmakers intend to look into the cybersecurity matter in the new Congress that begins Jan. 3. The BOI reporting requirements were scheduled to take effect for most companies in January but were temporarily placed on hold by a federal court (see 2412270046).
Separately, Hill and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the incoming chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, asked Treasury Dec. 31 to brief their committees by Jan. 10 on the cyber attack, including the type and extent of information that was accessed and the steps the department is taking to prevent another breach. The intrusion "raises serious questions about the protocols for safeguarding sensitive federal government information from future cybersecurity incidents," the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.