China Using Online Job Platforms As Part Of Espionage Efforts, Five Eyes Say
China is using online job platforms and professional networking sites as part of its espionage efforts against the U.S. and its allies, a security bulletin from the Five Eyes warned.
“These actors use an aggressive online recruitment strategy whereby intelligence officers or their affiliates pose as employees of private consultancies, think tanks or human resources (HR) firms, and place online job advertisements for foreign policy and defense analysts (or similar),” reads a passage of the bulletin from the organization, which includes the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.
Among the platforms being used in the ruse are LinkedIn, Indeed, and Upwork. There, recruiters will reach out to individuals – usually government employees or military – with a freelance or “gig work” opportunity. The ultimate goal of the contact is to acquire privileged military, political and economic intelligence eventually.
The bulletin warns that it’s not just people with direct access to potentially sensitive information who are being targeted, but also those with peripheral access, such as academics, journalists, freelance writers, and think tank employees.
According to the bulletin, after making initial contact through a job website or networking platform, candidates will have an interview held virtually during which recruiters conceal their identity and begin asking questions about the target’s access to information and their role.
“Military members may be asked about their roles and unit activities, home base or naval vessel,” the bulletin states.
Eventually, the candidates are asked to write a trial report on a topic. Later, additional reports are requested that begin to require more privileged information. “At some point in the recruitment process, intelligence officers typically move the conversation to a more ‘secure’ platform, such as encrypted messaging applications,” the bulletin stated.
“Recruits receive anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars per report, and may be offered more money in return for increasingly sensitive information,” the bulletin states.
The bulletin notes that even unclassified information on government policy, military strategy, or capabilities can “place the lives of frontline military or other personnel at risk, can weaken our economic prosperity, and enable interference in our democratic processes.”
The document ends by warning that “Five Eyes agencies have identified individuals who have undertaken these activities, leading to criminal prosecutions, job losses, and security-clearance revocation.”
China pushed back on the allegations outlined in the bulletin, saying in a statement to Reutersthat the warning was “entirely fabricated” and “constitutes malicious slander.”
