Chinese hackers intercept US ambassador’s emails

Hackers linked to beijing accessed the account email of the ambassador of USA in ChinaNicholas Burns, in a spying operation believed to have compromised hundreds of thousands of US government emails, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary of state for East Asia, was also hacked in the biggest spying operation revealed earlier this month by Microsoft, according to the report on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Asked about the alleged breach of the accounts of the two diplomats, the State Department declined to provide details, saying its investigation into the spying operation was ongoing.

He added that: “For security reasons, we are not going to share any additional information about the nature and scope of this cybersecurity incident at this time.”

Burns and Kritenbrink join US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo as the only publicly identified victims of the spy campaign, which prompted a warning from Washington’s top diplomat to his Chinese counterpart.

Microsoft said last week that Chinese hackers misappropriated one of its digital keys and used a flaw in its code to steal email from US government agencies and other customers.

The company did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the WSJ report.

China’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report, but the Chinese foreign ministry previously called the allegations “disinformation”.

Source: Reuters