U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. File.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s computer was hacked and unclassified files were accessed as part of a broader breach of the Treasury Department by Chinese state-sponsored hackers, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday (January 16, 2025), citing two people familiar with the matter.

The computers of two of Ms. Yellen’s lieutenants, Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo and Acting Under Secretary Brad Smith, were also breached, the report said.

The hackers accessed fewer than 50 files on Ms. Yellen’s machine, Bloomberg said.

The Treasury Department did not immediately respond to a Reuters‘ request for a comment.

The hack, what the Treasury called a “major incident”, happened in December when Chinese state-sponsored hackers breached the department’s computer security guardrails by compromising third-party cybersecurity service provider BeyondTrust, according to Treasury officials.

“China has always opposed all forms of hacker attacks,” Mao Ning, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, said at the time.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will travel to New Delhi to participate in the G20 leaders summit from September 7-10, making her fourth visit to India in 10 months, the Treasury Department said on Thursday.

Ms. Yellen intends to focus at the summit on strengthening the global economy and supporting low-and middle-income countries by advancing efforts on debt restructurings, the evolution of multilateral development banks (MDBs) and building International Monetary Fund trust fund resources, the Treasury said.

She will “continue to build momentum” for her drive to evolve the World Bank and other multilateral lenders to boost financing capacity to aid developing countries’ clean energy transitions, tackle pandemics, fragility and conflict, it said.

The Treasury estimates that the lenders collectively can unlock $200 billion in new financing over a decade with balance sheet measures now being implemented or under discussion.

Also read | IMF managing director to attend G20 summit in Delhi after trips to China and Indonesia

The Treasury said Ms. Yellen also will rally America’s G20 allies to maintain economic support for Ukraine and increase costs on Russia over Moscow’s continuing war in Ukraine. This includes supporting the G7-led price cap on Russian oil exports and efforts to strengthen global food security in the face of restrictions on Ukrainian grain exports.

At the same time, the Treasury said Ms. Yellen will work to deepen U.S. bilateral ties with India, a country she first described last November as a prime “friend-shoring” destination and alternative to China for U.S. investment and supply chains.

Also read | Help us make G20 summit a success: PM Modi

Treasury’s statement did not mention specific bilateral meetings.

On the sidelines of last year’s G20 Summit in Indonesia, Ms. Yellen met with the People’s Bank of China’s then-governor Yi Gang in first of several face-to-face meetings with senior Chinese officials in recent months to ease rocky U.S.-China ties, culminating in her visit to Beijing in July.