State Department confirms data breach by Chinese hackers

U.S. agencies said Wednesday that Chinese-based hackers infiltrated government Microsoft email accounts for a month. U.S. officials say none of the breached systems or stolen data were classified. Microsoft on Tuesday said about 25 organizations were affected, including the U.S. State Department and Commerce Department. Mark R. Warner, chairman of the Senate Committee on Intelligence, described the hack as “a significant cybersecurity breach by Chinese intelligence.” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said during a Thursday press briefing that the U.S. needs to “give an explanation for its own cyber attacks.”

How was the hack discovered? The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, a federal data watchdog group, said a federal civilian executive branch in mid-June reported suspicious activity in employees’ Microsoft 365 accounts. Microsoft said they began investigating the breach on June 16 and realized the hackers gained access on May 15. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller described the breach as “an anomalous incident” and said it remained under investigation.

Dig deeper: Read Todd Vician’s report in WORLD Magazine on another recent attempt by China to spy on the U.S.