Key Points
WASHINGTON, July 13 (Reuters) - U.S. Commerce Department Secretary Gina Raimondo was among a group of senior U.S. officials whose emails were hacked earlier this year by a group Microsoft (MSFT.O) says is based in China, according to a person briefed on the matter, as fallout from the digital theft continues to spread...
Secretary of State Antony Blinken made clear to China's top diplomat Wang Yi in a meeting in Jakarta on Thursday that any action that targets the U.S. government, U.S. companies or American citizens "is of deep concern to us, and that we will take appropriate action to hold those responsible accountable," said another source, a senior State Department official...
On Tuesday, Microsoft revealed that a stealthy Chinese hacking operation had exploited a secret flaw in a piece of the company's authentication software in order to covertly break into email accounts belonging to 25 unnamed organizations...
A Commerce Department spokesperson said on Wednesday that Microsoft had notified the agency of "a compromise to Microsofts Office 365 system, and the Department took immediate action to respond.".
A report by the U.S. inspector general's office in March sharply criticized the Commerce Department's fundamental deficiencies in its cybersecurity incident response program, saying it violated security procotols, did not properly use cyber-protection tools and poorly handled simulated cyberattacks...
