Chinese Entities Account for Over 50% of State-Sponsored AI Cyberattacks on U.S. Tech, CrowdStrike Reports

According to CrowdStrike, Chinese entities accounted for more than half of state-sponsored intrusions targeting U.S. technology companies' AI assets in the 12 months through March 31, as the competition for AI capabilities intensifies. The cyberattacks have expanded beyond stealing specific trade secrets to targeting product roadmaps, supply chain vulnerabilities, and other information that could narrow the estimated three- to four-month AI development gap between China and the U.S., according to Matt Pearl, director of strategic technologies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Additionally, Anthropic accused Chinese companies, including Alibaba, of attempting to steal its AI capabilities, while Copyleaks found that responses from Chinese startup DeepSeek's R1 model resembled those from OpenAI's ChatGPT nearly three-quarters of the time. Cybersecurity experts note that AI startups face heightened risk, as attackers increasingly target new employees through social engineering tactics amplified by AI-powered content campaigns.