Treasury regulatory office reports ‘major information security incident’

A hack into the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency discovered in February has been deemed a “major information security incident” in a notification to Congress, the agency said Wednesday.

The hackers gained access to top officials’ emails that contained highly sensitive information about the financial condition of federally regulated financial institutions, OCC said in a published notice. The office — which is part of the Treasury Department — charters, regulates and oversees national banks and related federal savings associations.

The OCC on Feb. 11 discovered “unusual interactions between a system administrative account in its office automation environment and OCC user mailboxes,” and confirmed the next day the activity was unauthorized, it said.

Bloomberg News first reported the hack Tuesday, noting the intruders gained access to about 103 bank regulators’ emails for over a year and said the hack accessed emails as far back as May 2023.

“The confidentiality and integrity of the OCC’s information security systems are paramount to fulfilling its mission,” acting Comptroller of the Currency Rodney Hood said in a statement. “I have taken immediate steps to determine the full extent of the breach and to remedy the long-held organizational and structural deficiencies that contributed to this incident.”

The incident comes amid a separate Chinese hack into Treasury Department systems disclosed last year that granted the attackers access to then-Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s computer, as well as other offices holding highly sensitive information.

OCC is investigating the incident and is using an unnamed third-party cybersecurity tool for forensics efforts, it said.