مسؤولون أميركيون: الصين مسؤولة عن عدة عمليات اختراق ضد الولايات المتحدة

Hackers linked to the Chinese government are to blame for targeted security breaches against US agencies and telecoms firms, US officials have claimed.

The US Department of the Treasury was the latest to be hacked, with officials revealing that the cyber criminals were able to access staff workstations and some unclassified documents.

China has denied all involvement, and now the breach considered a “major incident” stands alongside several other recent US-targeted attacks.

The treasury department hack surfaced not long after the announcement in late October 2024 that two major US presidential campaigns had been targeted by cyber criminal groups.

The White House-targeted campaigns were conducted by “actors affiliated with the People’s Republic of China”, according to Cisa (the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) and the FBI.

Prior to this in September, there were reports that at least nine marquee-named telecoms companies, including Verizon and AT&T, had been hacked.

Seven Chinese nationals, believed to have been targeting businesses, politicians and China critics, were also charged with running a hacking campaign earlier in March, linked to operations Judgement Panda and Zirconium.

Who are the hackers?

The US authorities said that the hacking campaigns appear to have been orchestrated by a string of Chinese state-linked groups.

The notorious hacking group Salt Typhoon, which also goes by other names including Ghost Emperor, has been accused of being responsible for the telecoms breach.

Meanwhile another group, Volt Typhoon, is said to have breached the security of critical infrastructure organizations to inflict potential disruption damages.

Many of the more recent cyber attacks have been aimed at high-profile politicians – such as President-elect Donald Trump whose smartphone was targeted – for the purpose of scraping sought after state-related information.

Other world stage figures, including the likes of VP-elect JD Vance, were also targeted, along with the staff team working for VP Kamala Harris’ campaign.

Furthermore, it’s possible that millions of American customers from the breached telecoms companies may have had their data compromised as a result of the nine confirmed cyber attacks.

US officials have expressed their concerns regarding the past year’s cyber bombardment, with Democrat Mark Warner calling the Salt Typhoon group’s activities “the worst telecom hack in our nation’s history.”

Meanwhile, FBI Director Christopher Wray expressed the same concerns, stating that the hacking group’s attack was China’s “most significant cyber-espionage campaign” to date.

Richard Forno, Assistant Director of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Cybersecurity Institute, believes that the attacks were likely planned years in advance.

“China traditionally takes a very long and strategic view of how they conduct their espionage and intelligence,” Forno stated. “The US tends to be much more reactive and much more interested in immediate and visible results.”

How has China responded?

During a news briefing, China’s foreign ministry Mao Ning said that the accusations were “lacking evidence” and “baseless”.

“The US needs to stop using cyber security to smear and slander China,” a Chinese spokesman also said in a statement, “and stop spreading all kinds of disinformation about the so-called Chinese hacking threats.”