US Commerce Chief’s email compromised by Chinese hackers, Blinken warns Chinese counterpart
According to a source, earlier this year the U.S. Commerce Department Secretary Gina Raimondo and other senior official’s emails were hacked by a group, based in China, said Microsoft. The consequences of this digital theft continue to expand.
In a meeting with China's top diplomat Wang Yi in Jakarta, Secretary of State Antony Blinken conveyed that any action that targets the U.S. government, U.S. companies or American citizens "is of deep concern to us, and that we will take appropriate action to hold those responsible accountable," said another source, a senior State Department official.
Recently, Microsoft revealed that a stealthy Chinese hacking operation had exploited a secret flaw in a piece of the company's authentication software in order to covertly break into email accounts belonging to 25 unnamed organizations.
After the news came to surface, many victims including the Commerce Department, personnel at the State Department and U.S. House of Representatives also acknowledged that they were affected. The intrusion activity began in May and continued for roughly one month.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the accusations "disinformation" in a statement to a news agency earlier this week.
Raimondo's department has implemented a series of export control policies against China, curbing the transfer of semiconductors and other sensitive technologies.
As per the Commerce Department spokesperson, Microsoft had notified the agency of "a compromise to Microsoft’s Office 365 system, and the Department took immediate action to respond."
A senior FBI official said that no classified information was taken during the hacking operation. The hacking was highly targeted, accessing only email inboxes and not destroying data.
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