Treasury suffered ‘serious breach’ in SolarWinds hack, senator says

Hackers breached systems in a Treasury Department division that is “home to the department’s highest-ranking officials,” a top senator said Monday, the newest disclosure in the massive cyberattack on the federal government.

Citing Treasury staff, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Finance Committee, said in a statement that the agency suffered a “serious breach, beginning in July, the full depth of which isn’t known.”

Wyden and Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) asked Treasury and IRS officials last week for a briefing on the cyberattack targeting SolarWinds, a company that makes IT products that are widely used by the federal government and U.S. corporations. Treasury was one of the departments targeted in the attack, which may have involved other vectors besides SolarWinds.