China-aligned hackers posed as a former White House official and an Anthropic employee to phish US AI policy experts

Proofpoint says a China-aligned espionage group it tracks as TA419 ran several credential phishing campaigns aimed at US AI policy experts at think tanks, universities and law firms. Starting July 8, 2026, the group impersonated Lynne Parker, a former principal deputy director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and then economist and foreign policy expert Heidi Crebo-Rediker. In February 2026, it impersonated a senior Anthropic employee to target an analyst at a US think tank, using the subject line "Request for Feedback on Military Integration of Claude." The first emails carried no malicious links. Instead they invited targets to join a fictitious "AI Policy Advisory Committee" or to contribute to a Senate Committee on Foreign Relations report on AI export controls, in order to build rapport. Once a target replied, the attackers sent a URL redirection chain leading to a OneDrive credential phishing page meant to capture cloud account logins. CyberScoop notes the activity comes amid growing US-China competition over AI development, export controls, semiconductor supply chains and military uses of AI. The Record reports the findings alongside separate research on Chinese government-backed campaigns targeting AI companies and Asian governments. The campaign shows that people who shape AI policy are themselves targets of intelligence collection, and that patient, link-free first contact is being used to get around email filtering.