China-linked hackers posed as former US officials, Anthropic employee to target AI experts

Cybersecurity firm Proofpoint reported that a China-aligned group tracked as TA419 conducted targeted phishing campaigns against AI policy researchers at think tanks, universities and law firms, impersonating senior officials (including former White House and State Department figures and an Anthropic employee) to solicit participation in faux advisory activities and then direct respondents to fake OneDrive pages to capture Microsoft credentials. The activity involved registering impersonating domains and targeted topics tied to defense, national security, and AI export controls; Proofpoint did not confirm whether any accounts were successfully compromised.