Introduction

China-linked hackers breached the email accounts of top U.S. officials, including U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns and Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Daniel Kritenbrink, as part of a recent targeted intelligence-gathering campaign, NBC News has confirmed.

The breach also affected Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo’s email account, as previously reported.

This news further fuels the fallout of the alleged Chinese hack first revealed last week.

Microsoft Discovers Significant Breach

Microsoft recently announced that China-based hackers breached email accounts of about 25 organizations, including some U.S. government agencies, in a significant breach.

The compromise was “mitigated” by Microsoft cybersecurity teams after it was first reported in mid-June 2023. The hackers had infiltrated government systems since at least May, according to the company.

During a recent meeting with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi in Jakarta, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken raised the issue of Chinese hacking.

Blinken assured Wang that the U.S. would hold the hackers responsible for their alleged breaches of U.S. government agencies.

Blinken emphasized that the incident, which was detected by the State Department last month, is still under investigation.

The U.S. government has consistently expressed deep concern over any actions targeting its agencies, companies, or citizens and has pledged to take appropriate action in response.

Last month, Blinken made a rare trip to Beijing in an effort to ease tensions between the two largest economies in the world.

Security experts argue that these incidents demonstrate an escalation in Beijing’s digital spying capabilities over the past decade.

In a blog post, researchers at cybersecurity firm Mandiant stated that “Chinese cyber espionage operators’ tactics had steadily evolved to become more agile, stealthier, and complex to attribute.”