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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Henry Belot

A fake website and a deluge of CVs: the Australian firm embroiled in an FBI probe into alleged Chinese espionage

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) headquarters building
A website impersonating an Australian consultancy firm is among 13 fake websites the FBI has seized as part of its ongoing investigation into alleged Chinese espionage. Photograph: Anadolu/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

When the first emails arrived, they were easily dismissed as spam. But as strangers continued to boast about their defence and security credentials, they became impossible to ignore.

From mid-2025, a small Australian consultancy firm called Horizzen started receiving emails and strange calls from people applying for vague jobs in the United States.

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