Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday played down the monthlong hacking of hundreds of thousands of State Department and Commerce Department email accounts by individuals based in China.
Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum, Blinken said that the compromised email accounts, which included those of the U.S. ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, were unclassified and that the department's classified system had not been breached. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s unclassified email account was accessed, as well.
"I can't speak to the direct impact of any particular incident," Blinken said in a discussion with NBC News' Andrea Mitchell. "I can say that the incident in question only affected our unclassified system."
The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the breach, which it said included hundreds of thousands of emails. The federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said that it learned of the hacking campaign in mid-June and that the it lasted for roughly a month.
A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington called the allegations “groundless.”
Cybersecurity experts cautioned that breaching unclassified networks can reveal sensitive information. The hacking occurred in the period before Blinken traveled to Beijing for talks with Chinese officials.
“No one should underestimate the damage that can be done even from unclassified emails,” said Glenn Gerstell, a former general counsel of the National Security Agency. “You can glean a great deal even if the underlying substance remains secret in the classified network.”
He said that the sophistication of the attack was shown by the hackers' ability to breach the State Department system, remain in it for a long period and target the accounts of senior officials. He added that it likely involved months of preparation.
“This is not a teenager getting lucky," Gerstell said. "This is a nation state being very sophisticated.”
Blinken said that he had raised the issue of hacking with Chinese officials.
"I’ve had, you know, opportunities to speak directly to Chinese counterparts about the deep concern we would have over anything targeting the U.S. government, targeting U.S. companies, targeting U.S. citizens," he said. "We’ll take appropriate action, if we need to, in response."
Blinken also played down the failure of the Biden administration's climate envoy, John Kerry, to secure an agreement with China during a recent visit to Beijing.
"The purpose of John’s trip was not to get an agreement, was not to get some concrete deliverable," Blinken said. "The purpose was to renew the conversation the dialogue we’ve been having with China on climate."
Asked about Russia, Blinken said that the recent mutiny by members of the Wagner Group showed the weakness of the government of Vladimir Putin. "We’ve seen cracks emerge in the facade," he said.
The Secretary of State then offered unsolicited advice to the leader of the group, Yevgeny Prigozhin. Blinken suggested that he consider fleeing, citing a series of incidents where Putin opponents have fallen from windows to their deaths in suspicious circumstances.
"You know, if I were Mr. Prigozhin, I would remain very concerned," he said. "NATO has an open door policy. Russia has an open windows policy, and he needs to be very focused on that."
