Beijing-linked hackers breach email account of US envoy to China

Hackers with links to Beijing managed to breach the email account of US Ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns. 

The targeted cyber attack is believed to have compromised hundreds of thousands of individual US government emails, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Notably, Daniel Kritenbrink, the assistant secretary of State for East Asia, was also among the victims of this extensive spying campaign, which was disclosed by Microsoft earlier this month. Both Burns and Kritenbrink's email accounts were accessed, raising serious concerns about the security of sensitive diplomatic communications.

US authorities have consistently labeled China as one of the most advanced adversaries in cyberspace, with the FBI saying that Beijing has a larger hacking program than all other governments combined. In this recent breach, the hackers infiltrated the unclassified US government email system, leaving officials to operate under the assumption that no information on the unclassified network is entirely secure.

The Biden administration is particularly worried that the Chinese hacking operation may have provided Beijing with insights into US thinking leading up to Secretary of State Antony Blinken's critical trip to China in June. During a meeting with Chinese diplomat Wang Yi, Blinken raised the issue of the hacking incident, showing the gravity of the situation.

Despite the severity of the breach, the US response remains undisclosed as the incident remains under investigation. Microsoft's assessment pointed to China-based hackers misusing one of its digital keys and exploiting a code flaw to gain unauthorised access to email accounts belonging to US government agencies and other clients.

The hacking began in mid-May, giving the perpetrators a significant head start before US government responders detected unusual cyber activity in mid-June. Once alerted, senior cyber officials at the State Department and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) swiftly mobilised to assess the situation. However, the sophisticated nature of the hackers' entry into the email accounts made it challenging for US officials and Microsoft analysts to initially identify the breach's extent and origin.

The Chinese embassy in Washington has not yet commented on the report, and the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs previously denied the allegations, dismissing them as "disinformation."