Fake AI Experts Lure Think Tanks Into M365 Phish

A China-aligned group (TA419) targeted US AI policy experts by impersonating well-known AI and policy figures and sending friendly “collaboration” emails. If the target engaged, the attackers redirected them through multiple URLs to a fake Microsoft login pop-up designed to steal Microsoft 365 passwords, MFA codes, and session cookies.

Key findings

• TA419 impersonated real people (including US government and AI-company-linked identities) to build credibility with AI policy targets.
• Initial outreach used benign-sounding collaboration lures such as joining an “AI Policy Advisory Committee.”
• Victims who responded were sent through a multi-stage redirection chain into an Adversary-in-the-Middle credential phishing flow.
• The attack used a Browser-in-the-Browser technique (Frameless BitB) to show a fake Microsoft login pop-up over a OneDrive-like page.
• The phishing flow relayed credentials to real Microsoft infrastructure to steal Microsoft 365 passwords, MFA codes, and session cookies.
• Cloudflare CDN was used to help obscure backend hosting, and domains were mostly registered via NameSilo.

Who’s being targeted

• Commonly targeted roles: Think tank staff, AI policy teams, University researchers, Legal and regulatory teams, Executives working on AI strategy/policy.
• Affected industries: Think tanks, Universities, Law firms, Defense contractors.
• Attack channels: email, website.
• Impersonated: A real AI policy/US government subject-matter expert (e.g., former White House OSTP leadership member), A senior employee of Anthropic.

Awareness takeaways

• Treat unsolicited “collaboration” requests, especially from famous experts or executives, as high-risk and verify via a separate, known-good contact method.
• Be suspicious of document-sharing pages that display a pop-up Microsoft login window; go to Microsoft 365 directly instead of signing in via an embedded prompt.
• Understand that attackers may capture more than a password; entering MFA codes into a phishing site can still compromise your account.
• For higher-risk teams (policy, executive, research), consider phishing-resistant authentication such as passkeys.

Red flags to watch for

• Unsolicited collaboration request using a high-profile person's identity
• Unexpected sign-in prompt presented as a pop-up over a document-sharing page
• Link redirects through multiple steps before reaching the login screen
• Unexpected outreach about sensitive AI/military topics from someone you have not previously worked with
• Pressure to review content via a link that requires a Microsoft login
• Login prompt appears as an embedded/overlay window rather than a normal sign-in page