Chinese hackers breached US government office that assesses foreign investments for national security risks

CNN —

Chinese hackers breached the US government office that reviews foreign investments for national security risks, three US officials familiar with the matter told CNN.

The theft, which has not previously been reported, underscores Beijing’s keen interest in spying on a US government office that has broad powers to block Chinese investment in the US as tensions between the world’s two superpowers remain high.

The breach was part of a broader incursion by the hackers into the Treasury Department’s unclassified system. The office targeted by the hackers, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS), in December gained greater authority to scrutinize real estate sales near US military bases. US lawmakers and national security officials have grown increasingly worried that the Chinese government or its proxies could use land acquisitions to spy on those bases.

It’s just one in a string of alleged Chinese cyber-espionage campaigns that have rattled the US government in the last year and that will challenge the incoming Trump administration. A separate Chinese hacking group burrowed deep into US telecom networks to spy on the phone communications of senior US political figures, including President-elect Donald Trump, CNN previously reported.

US officials are scrambling to assess any fallout to national security from the hack of unclassified information, which Treasury disclosed to lawmakers last week.

The hackers also targeted Treasury’s sanctions office, which just last week sanctioned a Chinese company for its alleged role in cyberattacks, two of the US officials told CNN. The Washington Post first reported the sanctions office was targeted. It was not immediately clear what information the hackers stole