Hackers allegedly linked to the Chinese government have hacked the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which is responsible for enforcing sanctions, and the office of the agency's head, Janet Yellen. As reported by The Washington Post, Beijing may have obtained information on those Washington sees as potential targets for new sanctions.
„The attack on OFAC, as well as on the Treasury Secretary's office - events that have not been previously reported - reflects Beijing's determination to obtain intelligence on its most significant rival in the global struggle for power and influence, officials said .', the publication writes.
Getting access to even unclassified documents could be useful to the PRC. According to them, hacking the control could give China information for discussions about sanctions in the US government. The Washington Post emphasizes that before imposing restrictions, OFAC makes notes on how the evidence collected against certain individuals meets the criteria for their inclusion on the sanctions lists.
Four former officials told the newspaper that such files can include both open-source data and classified materials obtained from US agencies or foreign partners. Despite the fact that the documents, which are state secrets, are kept separately, even unclassified materials can shed light on how the US plans to expand the sanctions regime and who exactly it considers potential targets.
A former agency official told The Washington Post that Chinese hackers had already penetrated OFAC databases in the early 2000s, gaining access to internal email communications. As the interlocutor told the publication, the White House is now finalizing work on an executive order that would respond to this problem.
Earlier this week, The New York Times reportedthat the US Treasury Department had reported to Congress that its electronic systems had been hacked by hackers who, according to the department, may be associated with the Chinese government. According to the publication, BeyondTrust, one of the department's software contractors, reported that a hacker remotely captured a security key that allowed the attackers to gain access to certain operating systems of the vault and documentation stored there.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said that Beijing opposes such baseless accusations of cyberattacks.