Suspected Chinese Hackers Impersonated Anthropic Executive, Ex-US Officials in Espionage Campaign Aimed at AI Experts Proofpoint stated that suspected Chinese hackers impersonated an executive at Anthropic and US government officials in a cyber-espionage campaign targeting AI policy experts.
According to Proofpoint, the hackers targeted the email accounts of experts on artificial intelligence (AI) export controls and military uses of AI. The victims of the suspected espionage campaign include university-based officials, think tanks, and law firms.
The cybersecurity firm added that this activity took place in February and July. Proofpoint stressed that it did not identify proof that the organizations targeted in the e-mail attack were compromised.
Moreover, the cybersecurity firm concluded that the activity might represent only a small portion of the wider campaign. Mark Kelly, a Proofpoint researcher, said that they are confident that the group of hackers behind the campaign was working on behalf of the Chinese government.
Kelly stated that their conclusion was based on the targets, infrastructure, and technical information, along with industry partner input. According to him, the hackers impersonated Lynne Parker, a former technology official in the Trump and Biden administrations. In one of the attacks, the hackers sent an e-mail to a law firm employee.
The subject of the e-mail stated, “Invitation to Join AI Policy Advisory Committee,” while the message contained a malware-laced attachment.
In this campaign, Parker is the one being impersonated since she declined the invitation. Parker is currently the associate vice chancellor emerita at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She revealed that her colleagues told her that they received a suspicious e-mail from Parker.
Suspected hackers impersonated an executive at the US-based artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic in another attack. According to Proofpoint, the attackers sent an e-mail on February 26 to an AI policy analyst at a Washington-based think tank. They also used the subject line, “Request for Feedback On Military Integration of Claude,” and the e-mail message encouraged the victim to reply.
The message’s goal was to entice the victim to provide the hacker with the analyst’s e-mail password. In addition, the hackers impersonated an Anthropic senior executive and sent the message to an AI policy analyst at a different think tank. According to Proofpoint, Chinese hackers are targeting a variety of national security and commercial AI technology and research areas, ranging from semiconductors to individual scientists.
Furthermore, the US president accused Chinese firms of expropriating US trade secrets on a massive scale, while China has denied the allegation.
Moreover, UK security agencies warned that Chinese hackers have accessed the research of British scientists on AI and cybersecurity. On the other hand, Parker stated that defending the US national security and economic competitiveness requires protecting individuals and organizations conducting cutting-edge research on AI policy.
