Chinese Hackers Allegedly Pose as US Lawmaker

US lawmakers have accused China-backed threat actors of impersonating US Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) in a series of spearphishing attacks, with the aim of influencing policy during ongoing high-level trade engagements. On 8 September, according to the US House Select Committee on China, the public was alerted to targeted cyberespionage campaigns linked to the Chinese Communist Party, with impersonations of Moolenaar reported in emails to trusted targets.

The committee said the operations sought to deceive recipients into opening files and links to grant access to systems and data, continuing a pattern of Beijing-led attempts to obtain sensitive adversary data. The story follows a 7 September Wall Street Journal report that Chinese actors were trying to spy on trade groups and that the FBI was investigating, naming the likely culprit as state-backed APT41.

APT41 has been described by Google as an actor involved in espionage and financially motivated activity, using techniques such as software supply chain compromises and bootkits.