Treasury Department hit in cyberbreach by China-sponsored actor, officials say

Treasury Department hit in cyberbreach by China-sponsored actor, officials say
Treasury Department hit in cyberbreach by China-sponsored actor, officials say
STOCK PHOTO/Adobe Stock

(WASHINGTON) — The Treasury Department was breached by a China-sponsored actor earlier this month, officials told Congress in a letter on Monday.

The “major” breach was achieved by gaining access to a third-party cybersecurity service Treasury used, called BeyondTrust, they said.

The actor then accessed Treasury workstations and “certain unclassified documents” on them, department officials said in a letter to the Senate Banking Committee.

The threat actor was able to “override the service’s security, remotely access certain Treasury DO user workstations, and access certain unclassified documents maintained by those users,” the letter said.

Treasury has ceased use of BeyondTrust since discovering the incident.

“The compromised BeyondTrust service has been taken offline and there is no evidence indicating the threat actor has continued access to Treasury systems or information,” according to a Treasury Department spokesperson.

The department has been working with the FBI and THE Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) as well as the intelligence community to “fully characterize the incident and determine its overall impact,” the official said.

More information will be available on the hack in a supplemental notice to Congress within 30 days, according to the Treasury Department.

Treasury is mandated by policy to notify Congress of such breaches.

China is one of America’s most pernicious cyberactors, experts and officials say. Last month, officials said a Chinese-backed group hacked into nine telecommunications companies and was able to gain access to certain high-profile individuals cellphones as a result of the hack.

It is unclear if this breach is related to those actions.

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Special counsel Jack Smith withdraws from appeal of classified docs case against Trump’s co-defendants

Special counsel Jack Smith withdraws from appeal of classified docs case against Trump’s co-defendants
Special counsel Jack Smith withdraws from appeal of classified docs case against Trump’s co-defendants
Rebecca Noble/Getty Images

(WASHINGTON) — Special counsel Jack Smith’s team has withdrawn from their appeal of the classified documents case against President-elect Donald Trump’s co-defendants and referred the case to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, according to a court filing Monday afternoon.

Smith last month dropped his appeal against Trump due to a longstanding Department of Justice policy prohibiting the prosecution of a sitting president, but his team continued to pursue their appeal against Trump’s two co-defendants in the case, longtime Trump aide Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago employee Carlos De Oliveira.

Trump pleaded not guilty last June to 37 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials, after prosecutors said he repeatedly refused to return hundreds of documents containing classified information ranging from U.S. nuclear secrets to the nation’s defense capabilities, and took steps to thwart the government’s efforts to get the documents back.

The former president, along with Nauta and De Oliveira, also pleaded not guilty to allegedly attempting to delete surveillance footage at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

Smith’s appeal, to the Atlanta-based Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, came after U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed Smith’s case in July, citing the constitutionality of his appointment as special counsel.

With the appeal ongoing, Smith’s team on Monday withdrew from the case and passed the case to federal prosecutors in Florida. In a separate filing, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Markenzy Lapointe, entered his appearance in the case.

A representative for the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.

Smith has also been winding down his federal election interference case against Trump following Trump’s reelection, and is expected to issue a report on his investigations to Attorney General Merrick Garland in the coming weeks.

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Respiratory virus activity is ‘high’ as cases increase in US: CDC

Respiratory virus activity is ‘high’ as cases increase in US: CDC
Respiratory virus activity is ‘high’ as cases increase in US: CDC
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(NEW YORK) — Respiratory illness activity – a measure of how often conditions like the common cold, flu, COVID-19, and respiratory syncytial virus are diagnosed – is currently “high” in the United States, according to an update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Currently, New Hampshire is listed as having “very high” respiratory virus activity, and 11 states – Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin – are listed as having “high” activity, CDC data shows.

Meanwhile, 29 states are listed as having “moderate” activity, and the remaining states are listed as having “low” activity.

Particularly, COVID-19, seasonal flu and RSV activity are increasing across the country with a rising number of people visiting emergency departments and the number of tests coming back positive for one of the three conditions, the CDC said.

The CDC estimates that there have been at least 3.1 million illnesses, 37,000 hospitalizations and 1,500 deaths from flu so far this season; these figures are based on the latest date for which data is available, which is the week ending Dec. 21.

Five pediatric deaths were reported during the week of Dec. 21, bringing the total number to nine so far during the 2024-25 season.

The CDC says levels of the COVID-19 virus being detected in wastewater are increasing, as are the number of emergency department visits and laboratory test positivity rates.

“Based on CDC modeled estimates of epidemic growth, we predict COVID-19 illness will continue to increase in the coming weeks as it usually does in the winter,” the CDC said in a statement.

For RSV, the CDC said emergency department visits and hospitalizations are increasing among children and hospitalizations are increasing among older adults in some areas.

Flu and COVID-19 vaccines are available for both children and adults, and RSV vaccines are available for certain groups of adults. However, vaccination coverage remains low, meaning “many children and adults lack protection from respiratory virus infections provided by vaccines,” according to the CDC.

As of Dec. 21, only 41.9% of adults were vaccinated against the flu and 21.4% were vaccinated with the updated 2024-25 COVID-19 vaccine. Additionally, just 43.7% of adults ages 75 and older have received the RSV vaccine, according to CDC data.

Nearly half of all children are vaccinated against the flu at 42.5%, but just 10.3% have received the updated COVID-19 vaccine.

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Bernie Madoff’s victims to receive final payout totaling $131 million

Bernie Madoff’s victims to receive final payout totaling 1 million
Bernie Madoff’s victims to receive final payout totaling $131 million
Jin Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — The fund disbursing money to the victims of Bernie Madoff’s legendary Ponzi scheme began its 10th and final distribution on Monday, putting another $131 million in the pockets of swindled investors.

Twenty-three thousand victims worldwide are receiving payments, bringing their total recoveries to 94% of their losses. Most of these victims were small investors who lost less than $500,000 in the fraud, according to federal prosecutors.

Since the collapse of Madoff’s investment house and his 2009 guilty plea, the Madoff Victim Fund has paid more than $4 billion to nearly 41,000 victims in 127 countries.

“This office has never stopped pursuing justice for victims of history’s largest Ponzi scheme,” acting U.S. Attorney Edward Y. Kim said.

For decades, Madoff used the investment advisory business he founded in 1960 to steal billions from his clients, turning his wealth management firm into the world’s largest Ponzi scheme to benefit himself, his family and select members of his inner circle.

He was sentenced to 150 years in prison, where he died in 2021.

“The unprecedented scope and complexity of the Madoff remission process shows the power of forfeiture to recover assets and to compensate victims,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brent Wible said in a statement on Monday.

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Strong winds, dry fuel spark concerns for wildfires in West Texas, New Mexico

Strong winds, dry fuel spark concerns for wildfires in West Texas, New Mexico
Strong winds, dry fuel spark concerns for wildfires in West Texas, New Mexico
ABC News

(NEW YORK) — Red flag warnings were issued Monday due to critical fire danger in West Texas, eastern New Mexico and the Oklahoma/Kansas/Colorado corner.

The combination of warm temperatures, gusty winds and low humidity could produce the potential for dangerous fire conditions across portions of the area.

With wind gusts reaching over 60 mph, alerts remain in effect from Colorado to Texas.

Relative humidity may only reach the low teens or even single-digits in these areas.

The public is urged to avoid the use of open flames or any activities that may generate sparks, according to the National Weather Service. In addition, people are asked to extinguish smoking material in vehicles since accidental ignitions have the potential to grow into dangerous wind-driven wildfires.

The warnings will remain in effect through Monday evening.

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‘Gone Girl’ kidnapper charged in home invasions from years earlier

‘Gone Girl’ kidnapper charged in home invasions from years earlier
‘Gone Girl’ kidnapper charged in home invasions from years earlier
Dublin Police Services, FILE

(CALIFORNIA) — The man who pleaded guilty to kidnapping and sexually assaulting a Northern California woman in a case that became known nationwide as the “Gone Girl” kidnapping has now been charged with other break-ins and assaults from years earlier, prosecutors announced on Monday.

Matthew Muller — who pleaded guilty in the 2015 kidnapping and sexual assault of Denise Huskins — has now been charged in connection with two other home invasions from 2009, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office said.

In the first attack, on Sept. 29, 2009, Muller allegedly broke into a woman’s home in Mountain View, tied her up, forced her drink a mix of medications and told her he was going to rape her, prosecutors said. The woman “persuaded him against it,” and Muller then allegedly suggested she get a dog and fled the scene, prosecutors said.

Weeks later, on Oct. 18, 2009, Muller allegedly broke into a home in Palo Alto, bound and gagged a woman and forced her to drink NyQuil, prosecutors said. “He then began to assault her, before being persuaded to stop,” prosecutors said. “Muller gave the victim crime prevention advice, then fled.”

Muller faces two felony counts of committing a sexual assault during a home invasion, prosecutors said.

Muller, who is currently in a federal prison in Arizona, is expected to be arraigned Monday.

On March 23, 2015, Muller broke into a home in Vallejo, where he drugged and tied up Huskins and her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, prosecutors said.

He kidnapped Huskins and took her to a cabin in South Lake Tahoe, where he sexually assaulted her, prosecutors said.

Quinn went to the police, who started to consider him a suspect.

After two days held captive, Muller drove Huskins to Southern California and released her.

Once Huskins was freed, the couple was then accused of a hoax, and the case set off a media firestorm fueled by suggestions that the case mirrored the book and movie “Gone Girl.”

Muller was arrested for Huskins’ kidnapping in June 2015 when he was identified as a suspect in a home invasion in Dublin, California.

Muller pleaded guilty in 2016 to Huskins’ kidnapping and in 2022 to her sexual assaults, prosecutors said.

The case became the subject of the Netflix documentary “American Nightmare” released earlier this year.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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FBI issues warning about burglaries of pro athletes’ homes

FBI issues warning about burglaries of pro athletes’ homes
FBI issues warning about burglaries of pro athletes’ homes
David Eulitt/Getty Images

(WASHINGTON) — The FBI has issued a formal warning to sports leagues about organized theft groups targeting professional athletes.

The warning follows a rash of burglaries, beginning in September, at the homes of professional athletes while they were playing games or traveling.

“These homes are targeted for burglary due to the perception they may have high-end goods like designer handbags, jewelry, watches, and cash,” the FBI said in a Liaison Information Report obtained by ABC News.

The report stated that “organized theft groups allegedly burglarized the homes of at least nine professional athletes” between September and November 2024.

“While many burglaries occur while homes are unoccupied, some burglaries occur while residents are home. In these instances, individuals are encouraged to seek law enforcement help and avoid engaging with criminals, as they may be armed or use violence if confronted,” the report further stated.

In a string of robberies, burglars have recently targeted the homes of Kansas City Chiefs stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, along with Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow and, most recently, Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Dončić. In addition, the homes of NBA guard Mike Conley Jr. and Bobby Portis have been burglarized. The FBI report does not specifically note or refer to any of these incidents.

According to the FBI, organized theft groups from South America conduct physical and technical surveillance in preparation for these burglaries, using publicly available information and social media to identify a pattern of life for a prospective victim. They often know in advance where valuables are kept in a home.

“These preparation tactics enable theft groups to conduct burglaries in a short amount of time. Organized theft groups bypass alarm systems, use Wi-Fi jammers to block Wi-Fi connections and disable devices, cover security cameras, and obfuscate their identities,” the FBI report said.

The FBI encouraged more reporting by athletes of suspicious activity and suggested athletes keep records of valuables, inventorying items and their whereabouts, employ additional security and use caution on social media, to include refraining from posting pictures of valuables, the interior of one’s home, and real-time posts when on vacation.

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Shares of Boeing slide after South Korea plane crash

Shares of Boeing slide after South Korea plane crash
Shares of Boeing slide after South Korea plane crash
SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — Shares of Boeing fell in early trading on Monday, one day after a Boeing model 737-800 was involved in the Jeju Air plane crash in South Korea that killed scores of passengers.

The stock price dropped more than 4% at the open of trading on Monday morning. The slide came hours after South Korea’s transportation ministry announced it would investigate the crash and conduct a full inspection of all Boeing 737-800 aircraft in use in South Korea.

All but two of the 181 people on board died Sunday in what authorities said was the deadliest plane crash in South Korea in decades.

The only survivors, a man and a woman, were among the six crew members onboard the Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 when it skidded along a runway, crashed into a wall and burst into flames on Sunday morning, officials said.

In a statement posted on X on Sunday, Boeing said the company had established communication with Jeju Air about the incident.

“We are in contact with Jeju Air regarding flight 2216 and stand ready to support them,” Boeing said. “We extend our deepest condolences to the families who lost loved ones, and our thoughts remain with the passengers and crew.”

Boeing did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

Jeju Air said it would not suspend operations of its 737-800 aircraft.

“There are no plans to suspend operations, but they will examine those parts once more and check them thoroughly during the inspection process,” said Song Kyung-hoon, head of Jeju Air’s Management Support Division.

As the aircraft approached South Korea’s Muan International Airport at 8:54 a.m. local time, the control tower gave it permission to land on a south-to-north runway, according to an official timeline by the Korean Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport.

Three minutes later, the flight control tower issued a warning of a possible bird strike, the transport ministry said. About two minutes after that warning, a pilot sent a distress signal, saying, “Mayday, mayday, mayday, bird strike, bird strike, going around,” the ministry said.

An official cause of the crash is under investigation by South Korea’s Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board.

The fatal crash and ensuing stock slide mark the latest setback for Boeing, which sought to put a series of scandals behind it last month when it struck a deal with a union representing thousands of West Coast factory workers, who had undertaken a seven-week strike.

The labor action began days after Boeing’s troubled Starliner spacecraft returned to Earth without its crew due to mechanical issues, and months after a door plug blew out of the company’s 737 Max 9 aircraft mid-flight, which itself happened five years after Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft were first grounded worldwide following a pair of tragic crashes.

The losses for Boeing on Monday coincided with a broader decline in the stock market.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell nearly 700 points in early trading, dropping the index about 1.5%.

The S&P 500 slid 1.5% in early trading on Monday, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq also declined 1.5%.

ABC News’ Joohee Cho and Kevin Shalvey contributed to this report.

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Survivor of South Korea plane crash is awake and speaking: Hospital official

Survivor of South Korea plane crash is awake and speaking: Hospital official
Survivor of South Korea plane crash is awake and speaking: Hospital official
Seongjoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images

(SEOUL) — A 33-year-old flight attendant, one of just two survivors of the Jeju Air plane crash in South Korea that killed 179 people, is awake and talking to medical staff, according to a hospital official.

The survivor, who was only identified by his surname Lee, told doctors he had “already been rescued” when he regained consciousness following Sunday’s fiery crash at the Muan International Airport, Ju Woong, director of the Ewha Womans University Seoul Hospital, said during a news conference on Monday.

Lee and another flight attendant on Jeju Air Flight 7C2216, who was identified by her surname Koo, were the only ones aboard the aircraft to live through what authorities said was South Korea’s deadliest plane crash in decades and one of the worst in aviation history.

The 25-year-old Koo is reportedly in stable condition at a different hospital than the one where Lee is being treated. Koo suffered injuries to her ankle and head, medical staff at the hospital told the Yonhap News Agency. The medical staff treating her declined to answer further questions about her condition.

Ju said Lee is being treated in the intensive care unit for multiple fractures.

He said Lee is “fully able to communicate.”

“There’s no indication yet of memory loss or such,” Ju said.

The hospital director said Lee is under special care due to the possibility of total paralysis.

Ju said he did not question Lee about the details of the crash, saying he didn’t believe it would be helpful with the patient’s recovery.

Lee was initially taken to a hospital in Mokpo before being transferred to the Ewha Womans University Seoul Hospital.

The crash unfolded just before 9 a.m. local time on Sunday at the Muan International Airport after the air traffic control tower gave the flight crew permission to land on a south-to-north runway, according to an official timeline by the Korean Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport.

Three minutes later, the flight control tower issued a warning of a possible bird strike, the transport ministry said. About two minutes after that warning, a pilot sent a distress signal, saying, “Mayday, mayday, mayday, bird strike, bird strike, going around,” the ministry said.

The plane ascended and made a 180-degree turn before descending from the north side, crash-landing and slamming into a wall at 9:03 a.m., the ministry said.

The aircraft, a Boeing 737-800, skidded along a runway, crashed into a wall and burst into flames, officials said. A total of 181 people were onboard.

The flight had originated before dawn Sunday at the Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport in Thailand, according to Flightradar24, a flight tracker.

An official cause of the crash is under investigation by South Korea’s Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board.

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Trump endorses House Speaker Mike Johnson amid Republican infighting

Trump endorses House Speaker Mike Johnson amid Republican infighting
Trump endorses House Speaker Mike Johnson amid Republican infighting
Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images

(WASHINGTON) — President-elect Donald Trump on Monday threw his support behind Speaker Mike Johnson amid a fight over the House gavel that will culminate in a vote at the end of the week.

“Speaker Mike Johnson is a good, hard working, religious man,” Trump wrote at the end of a lengthy social media post. “He will do the right thing, and we will continue to WIN. Mike has my Complete & Total Endorsement.”

In the same post, Trump boasted about his successful 2024 White House run, praising Republicans for running a “legendary” campaign while railing against President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

He urged Republicans to “not blow” an opportunity for a “relief” from the outgoing administration — calling for Republicans to support Johnson.

Johnson, who faced pushback from members of his own party over his leadership during the recent government shutdown fight, thanked Trump for his endorsement.

“I’m honored and humbled by your support, as always,” Johnson wrote on X. “Together, we will quickly deliver on your America First agenda and usher in the new golden age of America. The American people demand and deserve that we waste no time. Let’s get to work.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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