Chinese hackers breached US Commerce chief’s e-mails; Blinken warns Chinese counterpart

WASHINGTON – US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo was among a group of

senior US officials whose e-mails were hacked

earlier in 2023 by a group Microsoft says is based in China, according to a source briefed on the matter, as fallout from the digital theft continues to spread.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken

made clear to China’s top diplomat Wang Yi in a meeting in Jakarta

on Thursday that any action that targets the US government, US 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 US State Department official.

On Tuesday, Microsoft revealed that a stealthy Chinese hacking operation had exploited a secret flaw in a piece of the company’s authentication software to covertly break into e-mail accounts belonging to 25 unnamed organisations.

Since the news broke, several victims in addition to the Commerce Department have acknowledged they were affected, including personnel at the State Department and US House of Representatives. 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 Reuters earlier this week.

Ms Raimondo’s department has implemented a series of export control policies against China, curbing the transfer of semiconductors and other sensitive technologies.

A Commerce Department spokesman said on Wednesday that Microsoft had notified the agency of “a compromise to Microsoft’s Office 365 system, and the department took immediate action to respond”.

But the spokesman declined to comment on an intrusion against Ms Raimondo specifically.

A report by the US Inspector-General’s Office in March sharply criticised the Commerce Department’s “fundamental deficiencies” in its cyber-security incident response programme, saying it violated security procotols, did not properly use cyber-protection tools and poorly handled simulated cyber attacks.

A senior Federal Bureau of Investigation official said on Wednesday that no classified information was taken during the hacking operation. The hacking was highly targeted, accessing only e-mail inboxes and not destroying data. REUTERS