Chinese hackers stole 60,000 US State Department emails

The Chinese hackers breached multiple US governments and stole around 60000 emails from senior State Department officials in May this year CNN reported citing a Senate stafferThe new details from a briefing to senators and their staffers illustrate how the Chinese operatives allegedly scoured the inboxes of senior US diplomats focused on diplomacy in the Pacific ahead of a highstakes trip by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to China in JuneThe hackers raided the unclassified email accounts of nine State Department officials focused on East Asia and the Pacific and another official who works on European issues CNN reported citing a staffer in the office of Republican Senator Eric Schmitt of MissouriThe staffer who declined to be named attended a briefing on the hacking campaign that senior State Department IT officials gave the Senate on WednesdayThe hackers were also able to access a list of every State Department email address according to the Senate staffer That kind of reconnaissance could be useful information for any followon hacking efforts aimed at the State Department according to CNNAlso read Watch Mumbaikars bid adieu to Lalbaugcha Raja after a spectacular 21hour processionAt a press briefing on Thursday State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller confirmed that the hackers accessed about 60000 State Department emailsThis was a hack of Microsoft systems that the State Department uncovered and notified Microsoft about Miller told reportersThe State Department has not formally attributed the hack but Microsoft has blamed a Chinabased hacking groupWe have no reason to doubt Microsofts attribution in this case CNN quoted Miller as sayingThe stealthy hacking campaign exploited Microsoft email software and began with the hackers breaching a Microsoft engineer the company has said The cyber intrusions have showcased the leaps China has made in its cyber capabilities CNN reported citing experts This has prompted US lawmakers and Biden administration officials to scrutinize the US governments reliance on Microsoft technologyThe cyberespionage campaign breached the unclassified email accounts of US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Daniel Kritenbrink the assistant secretary of State for East Asia who travelled with Blinken to China in June CNN previously reportedRepublican Rep Don Bacon of Nebraska who has been critical of the Chinese government said he was also breached by the hackersChinese government officials have responded to the hacking allegations by accusing the US government of conducting cyberattacks against ChinaIn a statement to CNN Senator Schmitt welcomed the briefing but said his investigation into the hacks is far from overWe need to harden our defences against these types of cyberattacks and intrusions in the future and we need to take a hard look at the federal governments reliance on a single vendor as a potential weak point CNN quoted Schmitt as sayingThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever