(Washington) Some 60,000 emails linked to American diplomacy were hacked during a cyberattack suspected of being of Chinese origin revealed last July and having notably targeted the State Department, its spokesperson said on Thursday .
“Approximately 60,000 unclassified emails were exfiltrated during this breach,” said spokesperson Matthew Miller when asked about this during a press briefing.
He reiterated that none of the secure systems containing classified information had been hacked.
The American government revealed last July the existence of this cyberattack which, according to Microsoft, was of Chinese origin and which targeted federal agencies including the State Department.
To date, the United States has refused to attribute responsibility, but claims to have “no reason to doubt the attribution publicly formulated by Microsoft” which then spoke of an actor “based in China that Microsoft calls Storm-0558.”
At the end of May, the United States, Western allies and Microsoft had already denounced a “cyber actor” sponsored by China who had infiltrated critical infrastructure networks of the United States.
In a State Department report released Thursday, the United States also denounced a massive disinformation campaign on the part of China, which threatens freedom of expression on the planet.