A troubling series of breaches of U.S. firms and agencies could intensify friction between Washington and Beijing as Donald Trump takes office.

A Chinese hack of the U.S. Department of the Treasury targeted offices tasked with overseeing economic sanctions and financial investigations, as experts warn

The cyberattack reported earlier this week reached into the Office of Foreign Assets Control and the Office of Financial Research, sections of the agency that oversee economic penalties against other nations and their citizens.

The US Treasury Department told lawmakers in a letter back in December that its documents and workstations were accessed by an external party in a security breach. It described the attack as "a major cybersecurity incident" and attributed it to a "China state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat actor.