China-Linked Hackers Impersonate AI Experts to Target US Policy Insiders
China-linked TA419 phishes US AI-policy staff using expert impersonation and a Microsoft 365 session-stealing proxy.
Proofpoint's first public report on TA419 says the China-aligned group has conducted credential phishing since at least April 2025 against think tanks, defense contractors, universities, and law firms in the United States and Japan. From July 8 the attackers impersonated former White House science official Lynne Parker and economist Heidi Crebo-Rediker, after earlier using a senior Anthropic employee's identity, with fake AI-policy and export-control pretexts. Links redirected victims to a spoofed OneDrive page built with the Frameless BitB adversary-in-the-middle kit, which proxies Microsoft 365 logins and captures passwords, MFA codes, and session cookies. Proofpoint assesses the campaign as likely supporting Chinese intelligence gathering on US AI policy and export controls.
- TA419 targeted US and Japan policy, defense, academic, and legal staff.
- Lures impersonated Lynne Parker, Heidi Crebo-Rediker, and an Anthropic employee.
- Frameless BitB proxy captured Microsoft 365 passwords, MFA codes, and session cookies.
- Proofpoint links the activity to Chinese collection on US AI policy.
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A China-aligned group has posed as well-known AI policy figures and economists to steal login credentials from AI policy specialists at US think tanks, universities and law firms.
Proofpoint, which tracks the group as TA419, said in research published October 1 that it has been running credential phishing against staff at think tanks, defense contractors, universities and law firms in the US and Japan since at least April 2025. It is the first public report on TA419.
From July 8, the attackers sent emails in the name of Lynne Parker, who served as principal deputy director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and later economist and foreign policy expert Heidi Crebo-Rediker. In February, TA419 had used the identity of a senior Anthropic employee to contact a think-tank analyst working on AI policy.
The opening messages were harmless invitations to sit on a made-up "AI Policy Advisory Committee" or help with a Senate Committee on Foreign Relations report on AI export controls. Anyone who responded got a shortened link that bounced through several redirects to a spoofed OneDrive login page.
Phishing Kit Captures Live Microsoft 365 Sessions
That page is an adversary-in-the-middle (AitM) reverse proxy assembled from Frameless BitB, an open-source kit that draws a fake browser window inside the page.
Because it forwards the victim's Microsoft 365 login to Microsoft in real time, the password, multifactor authentication (MFA) code and conditional access checks all pass, and TA419 walks away with the session cookies.
Proofpoint said TA419 bolted on its own module to monitor where each victim is in the login process. It also ticks "Keep me signed in" automatically, so the stolen session lasts longer, and enters one-time codes the moment they are accepted.
AI Policy Draws Espionage Interest
Proofpoint believes the campaigns likely feed Chinese intelligence gathering on how US AI policy and regulation are developing, amid US-China rivalry over export controls and model distillation.
It sees the AI targeting as an extension of TA419's focus on defense, national security, energy and foreign policy, and expects the group to continue its impersonation of real experts. A House committee said Chinese state-linked actors used similar tactics in 2025, impersonating Congressman John Moolenaar.
Proofpoint advised organizations to adopt phishing-resistant sign-in methods such as passkeys.
"Individual targets in scope of TA419 activity should treat unsolicited subject-matter outreach as a plausible pretext stage," the company wrote, "and seek to verify the legitimacy of such unexpected communications via another independent medium."