Beijing-linked hackers accessed the email account of the US ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, in an attack believed to have compromised at least hundreds of thousands of emails from members of the US government, according to people familiar with the matter.
Two sources said that Daniel Kreitenbrink, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian affairs, was also hacked in the cyber-espionage attack, according to the Wall Street Journal.
One of the officials also said he believes the two diplomats are the two most senior State Department officials targeted in the alleged spying campaign that was revealed last week.
Features of the campaign are not fully known, though limited to unclassified emails. The inboxes of Burns and Kreitenbrink could have allowed hackers to glean insights into US planning for a series of recent visits to China by senior Biden administration officials, as well as internal conversations. about US policies toward its rival amid a period of delicate diplomacy that has been repeatedly challenged in recent months.
Burns and Kreitenbrink are the second and third senior Biden administration officials identified in news reports as having their emails hacked.
US officials said the email account of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo was also hacked.
To that, a person familiar with the matter stated that it appears that the email account of Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was not hacked directly in the hacking process, and the accounts of his circle of senior advisors were not hacked.
Instead, the hackers appeared to focus on a small number of senior officials responsible for managing the relationship between the United States and China.
Diplomats and other State Department personnel are a lucrative target for foreign hackers in hostile countries like China, whose intelligence services are eager to learn about the Biden administration’s foreign policy insights and planning. CNN reported earlier that the State Department was the first to discover the hacking campaign.
Sophisticated and increasing attacks
The breach also raises new alarms about the ability of Chinese hackers to orchestrate increasingly sophisticated attacks and marks a fragile point in US-China relations.
China routinely denies hacking US organizations and has accused the US and its allies of targeting Chinese networks.
Chinese cyber spies have been stealing data from the US government and its allies for more than a decade, according to current and former intelligence officials.
While the outlines of the newly disclosed hack did not surprise officials or researchers in the cybersecurity field, many of which said it reflected China’s rapidly improving technical skills, it appeared to more accurately target individuals seen as lucrative intelligence targets.
