According to the US government, suspected Chinese hackers were able to access the email accounts of US government officials during an attack. “I stress these were unclassified email accounts, so they were not receiving classified information,” US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN.
Sullivan did not provide any background information on the hackers and did not directly confirm that China was behind the attack. According to the media, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken raised the issue at a meeting with China’s top foreign policy leader, Wang Yi, in Jakarta.
Ministry had “discovered anomalous activity”
Earlier this week, Microsoft said a group of Chinese hackers had broken into some of its customers’ email systems to gather information. A State Department spokesman later said the department had “discovered anomalous activity,” but gave no details.
In May, Microsoft said state-backed Chinese hackers were increasing their targeting of critical infrastructure in the US. Various organizations were affected by the attacks in areas such as communications, manufacturing, utilities, transportation, construction, maritime, government, information technology and education, it said. China denied the allegations.
Access via Microsoft cloud services
Sullivan emphasized that the hackers gained access via Microsoft cloud services. “We detected the attack, shut it down quickly, and have now taken action to ensure it is not a persistent vulnerability.” He said in general about hacker attacks: “It’s been like this for a long time, we are confronted with such things across several governments.” In all of these cases, the US government has taken steps to hold those responsible to account and will continue to do so, Sullivan said. The incident will be further investigated. US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo’s email account was reportedly affected by the attack.
