Chinese hackers target family members to surveil hard targets

The report explains that APT31, a hacking group linked to China’s Ministry of State Security, conducted a sprawling campaign from 2015–2024 targeting thousands of Western politicians, officials, academics and activists. Operators used seemingly benign tracking links sent to family members and impersonated journalists to collect reconnaissance (location, IP, device and network details) that enabled follow-on technical targeting of devices such as home routers, representing a sophisticated nation-state surveillance campaign against high-value individuals.