Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce, Gina Raimondo, has become one of several high-ranking Americans whose emails were compromised earlier this year by hackers that Microsoft claims is located in China.
In a meeting with Wang Yi on Thursday in Jakarta, Secretary of State Antony Blinken made it clear that any action that targets the United States government, American businesses, or American citizens “is of deep concern to us, and that we will take appropriate action to hold those responsible accountable.”
Microsoft disclosed on Tuesday that a cunning Chinese hacking operation has secretly accessed email accounts belonging to 25 undisclosed organisations by secretly exploiting a hole in one of the company’s authentication tools.
Personnel at the State Department and the U.S. House of Representatives, in addition to the Commerce Department, have admitted been impacted since the news first surfaced.
The incursion activity lasted for about a month and started in May.
In a statement to Reuters earlier this week, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the claims as “disinformation”.
A number of export control regulations have been put in place by Raimondo’s office against China, limiting the transfer of sensitive technologies like semiconductors.
According to a representative for the Commerce Department on Wednesday, Microsoft informed the department of “a compromise to Microsoft’s Office 365 system, and the Department took immediate action to respond.”
According to a senior FBI officer, the hacking operation did not result in the theft of any secret information. Only email inboxes were accessed during the highly targeted hack, which spared any other data.
A senior FBI official said on Wednesday that no classified information was taken during the hacking operation. The hacking was highly targeted, accessing only email inboxes and not destroying data.
