China hacks U.S. Treasury Department in major cyber attack.

The U.S. Treasury Department has confirmed a breach by a Chinese state-sponsored hacker, who accessed government employees' workstations and unclassified documents.

The Biden administration confirmed the incident on Monday, as reported by The New York Times. The breach was initially detected on December 8 by BeyondTrust, a third-party software provider.

The hacker reportedly obtained a security key that allowed remote access to specific Treasury workstations and the documents stored on them.

A letter from the Treasury Department to lawmakers attributed the attack to a Chinese state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor. The department classified the incident as a "major cybersecurity incident" under its policies.

The Treasury Department, in collaboration with the FBI, intelligence agencies, and other investigators, is evaluating the breach's impact.

Officials confirmed that the compromised service has been deactivated, and no evidence suggests the hackers still have access to Treasury systems.