Another US Congressman reveals emails hacked by China
US Congressman and House Armed Services Committee member Don Bacon said his email accounts were hacked as part of Microsoft’s recently disclosed Chinese cyber espionage campaign.
Image by Chebakalex7 | Shutterstock
A Congressman from Nebraska, who also serves on the House Armed Services Committee, said his email accounts were also hacked as part of Microsoft’s recently disclosed Chinese cyber espionage campaign.
Nebraska Republican Congressman Don Bacon announced the hack late Monday after he said FBI officials came to him warning both his personal and political email messages had been compromised in the Chinese hacking incident.
Bacon said the FBI told him the Chinese Communist Party had access to his accounts for about a month ending on June 16th.
“We now know that besides key targets in State Department, the CCP hacked into my personal and political email account,” Bacon posted on X Tuesday morning.
The Congressman speculated the targeted hack was because of his stance regarding a number of political issues against the Communist regime.
“Why? I stand against the Uighur genocide and abuses conducted in Tibet and Hong Kong. And, I support an independent Taiwan,” the Congressman posted.
"There were other victims in this cyber operation," Bacon said on X. "The Communist government in China are not our friends and are very active in conducting cyber espionage," Bacon had said on X Monday.
Microsoft, who disclosed the breach in a July 12th blog post, revealed that a China-based threat actor – dubbed Storm-0558 – had allegedly gained access to hundreds of thousands of government emails from top US officials, as well as those from nearly two dozen other organizations.
The email accounts of US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, the US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns, and the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Daniel Kritenbrink, were all said to be compromised in the month-long attack, which began May 15th.
The Chinese-backed hackers reportedly were able to exploit "a validation error in Microsoft code” using forged digital encryption keys, resulting in the US House of Representatives Oversight Committee to launch an investigation into the attack earlier this month.
Moreover, on July 28th, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden wrote a scathing letter calling on the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the Justice Department (DoJ) to 'take action' against the technology giant and hold Microsoft "responsible for its negligence."
The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
The Congressman, who was elected in 2016, is a former Air Force brigadier general currently serving on the House Armed Services Committee.
Among other tasks, the Committee oversees the funding plans for the Department of Defense and the US military.