Hackers linked to Beijing reportedly managed to infiltrate the email accounts of high-ranking US officials, including the US ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, and assistant secretary of state for East Asia, Daniel Kritenbrink.
The cyberattack is believed to be a significant breach, with both Burns and Kritenbrink being the most senior State Department officials known to have been targeted in this attack.
The Wall Street Journal reported the breach, and CNN confirmed the validity of the report.
Notably, Daniel Kritenbrink had accompanied Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his diplomatic visit to Beijing in the previous month. However, there have been no public reports indicating that Secretary Blinken’s account was compromised.
“For security reasons, we will not be sharing additional information on the nature and scope of this cybersecurity incident at this time,” a State Department spokesperson said.
“The Department continuously monitors and responds to activity of concern on our networks. Our investigation is ongoing, and we cannot provide further details at this time,” the spokesperson added.
In addition to the State Department, the cyber intrusion also extended to Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo’s email account, as reported by multiple sources.
Last week, both the State Department and the Commerce Department acknowledged the breach of their email systems during the cyber campaign.
Microsoft, which was instrumental in revealing details about the attack, described the culprits as a “China-based actor.”
The hackers gained access to email accounts across approximately 25 organizations, although Microsoft did not disclose the identities of those organizations.
According to Microsoft, the discovery of the hack was made on June 16, 2023, and further investigation revealed that the attack had commenced on May 15, 2023. Microsoft reported that it had successfully mitigated the attack for all its customers.
The State Department, acknowledging Microsoft’s disclosure of the breach, declined to immediately confirm whether the hackers were indeed based in China.
Furthermore, they did not disclose whether any classified information had been compromised during the cyber intrusion.
Regarding Secretary Blinken’s trip to China, it is worth noting that the email breach would have been discovered just hours before his departure.
The summit in Beijing took place on June 17, after the trip was initially postponed from February due to a controversy involving a Chinese spy balloon that was present in US airspace from January 28 to February 4.
During the visit to Beijing, Kritenbrink and Burns participated in meetings with top Chinese officials and President Xi Jinping. Secretary Blinken raised the issue of the cyber breach during a discussion with Chinese diplomat Wang Yi last week.
