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John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, speaks at the Hill & Valley Forum 2025 at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images Earlier this month, the bipartisan House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party disclosed that hackers linked to Beijing tried to impersonate its chairman, Representative John Moolenaar (R-Michigan). Using his name and title, the attackers sent emails circulating draft American sanctions legislation to various stakeholders: prominent Washington law firms, business and trade associations, think tanks and at least one foreign government. The language of the proposed legislation was real. But the hackers were trying to get into the targets’ computer systems. Investigators believe the campaign began earlier in the summer. One so-called “lure” sent this past July contained malware attributed to APT41, a prolific Chinese espionage group known for mixing state-directed intelligence operations with criminal activity. Significant Timing The timing of the phishing campaign is significant. The July message coincided with highly sensitive negotiations between Washington and Beijing over the future of the bilateral trade relationship. The talks had a loaded agenda: U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods, Beijing’s countermeasures and the wider strategic contest over global technology access and supply chains. Senior American officials were weighing whether to escalate restrictions on Chinese semiconductors and cloud services while also exploring limited tariff relief to ease pressure on American importers. The obvious objective of the phishing campaign was the collection of insight into America’s negotiating positions. It’s unclear whether the effort succeeded in breaching accounts or exfiltrating data. The Select Committee has not indicated that congressional systems were compromised. Despite the absence of any confirmation of a successful intrusion, the scope, timing and intent of the…

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Filed under: News - @ September 22, 2025 4:27 am