5 reasons why a top Chinese hacker gang and their friends could wreak havoc on US

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You may never have heard of Threat Actor Storm-0558, but this top Chinese hacker gang broke into the State Department computer systems via Microsoft Exchange Online last spring and read emails for several weeks before Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s visit to Beijing. They also got to Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns, Rep. Don Bacon, R-Ill., and 391 other Americans plus other government offices in the U.S. and Europe.

Then the State Department caught Storm-0558 in June, and Microsoft mitigated the attack. End of story? Not quite.

A scathing report on the incident released Apr. 2 by the Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber Review Board has ignited a firestorm. According to the Board, "this intrusion was preventable and should never have occurred." Worse, experts are still not sure how China pulled off the key part of the deception required to slip in. That touched off fears for data security. First, the State Department. Next, the cloud?

CHINESE HACKERS HAD ACCESS TO US INFRASTRUCTURE FOR 'AT LEAST 5 YEARS' BEFORE DISCOVERY

To cut to the chase: Homeland Security is plenty mad at China for the diplomatic data breach. But they are anxious that this same cyber war tactic could allow China to do far more damage if their cyber gangs hack data in the cloud.

Here are five reasons the Cyber Review Board is both furious and worried.

1. Diplomatic damage occurred.

No question, the Chinese hack did damage to U.S. diplomacy. The Storm-0558 intrusion occurred as U.S. diplomats were preparing for a summer of high-level meetings in Beijing, beginning with Blinken in June 2023. For the State Department at least, the Storm-0558 breach was way worse