A paper to be delivered next week at USENIX takes a deep look into the reconnaissance nation-states undergo in order to craft email-based attacks against non-governmental organizations. Regimes use phishing emails, other social engineering tactics, and drive-by downloads to infect computers belonging to dissidents in an attempt to monitor their communication and in some cases, their physical location. The attackers go to great lengths to infiltrate their victims, tailoring phishing messages with precision in respect to the language and specialization of the victim.
Source: https://threatpost.com/study-confirms-uyghur-remain-in-crosshairs-of-targeted-attacks/107741/