An email inviting Alex Engler to join a new artificial intelligence policy project seemed close enough to genuine to merit a check. It appeared to come from Lynne Edwards Parker, a former principal deputy director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Engler, a former White House official who now heads the Penn Center on Media, Technology, and Democracy, said it felt “slightly, nebulously off”. After consulting others in the field, he concluded that the message had come from an impostor.
Proofpoint, the cybersecurity firm, said on Thursday that a China-aligned hacking group known as TA419 had used Parker’s identity in July 2026 as part of a phishing campaign aimed at artificial intelligence policy specialists. The targets included experts at think tanks, defence contractors, universities and law firms in the US and Japan. They worked on AI regulation, export controls and national AI strategy.
The campaign sought credentials that could give the attackers access to targets’ email accounts and communications. Proofpoint said fewer than 10 individuals were targeted. It said that narrow focus suggested “an intelligence interest in US policymaking rather than technology theft alone”.
TA419 had been operating since April 2025, according to the report. In February 2026, the group also impersonated a prominent Anthropic employee while trying to reach AI policy experts. Proofpoint said it expected the group to continue targeting think tanks and policy specialists through spoofed identities of real AI experts.
The initial messages were designed to start a conversation. Some asked recipients to join an ‘AI Policy Advisory Committee’ or proposed AI-related collaborations. Recipients who responded were directed to a false sign-in page intended to capture their credentials.
Proofpoint described a method in which attackers place a false browser pop-up inside a legitimate webpage. The pop-up resembles a genuine sign-in prompt and was designed to harvest Microsoft 365 credentials and authenticated sessions. The report did not identify any confirmed account compromises or stolen information.
Parker told Reuters that Engler was one of two people she knew of who had received suspicious messages claiming to come from her in early July. “The United States and China are in a competition around AI,” she said. Parker said an effort to obtain information from people working on AI policy plans would be unsurprising if that was the campaign’s purpose.
Proofpoint attributed the activity to China through the malware used in the campaign, the internet infrastructure behind it and the group’s targeting patterns. The firm said those patterns matched Chinese intelligence collection priorities. Beijing has long denied carrying out cyberespionage operations.
It remains unclear how many recipients replied to the messages or followed any malicious links. The report also does not identify the full list of organisations and people targeted, or what specific policy information the attackers sought. Its findings nevertheless point to an attempt to gain insight into US AI policymaking through the people involved in shaping it, rather than through a direct attempt to obtain AI technology.
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