Skip to main content

Chinese Intelligence Officials Go Headhunting on LinkedIn to Spy on US

Back in December last year, India’s Intelligence Bureau revealed that some Chinese apps such as SHAREit come installed with spyware, prompting the Defence Ministry to issue a directive telling military personnel to delete such apps. While SHAREit and other companies refuted the accusations back then, a new espionage scandal against China has now raised its head.

William Evanina, chief of the U.S. counter-intelligence division has told Reuters that Chinese intelligence agencies are trying to recruit Americans with access to government files and military secrets using fake LinkedIn accounts. US intelligence and law enforcement officials have informed LinkedIn about the serious issue, and the company has acknowledged it too.

Evanina added that LinkedIn ‘makes for a great venue for foreign adversaries to target not only individuals in the government, formers, former CIA folks, but academics, scientists, engineers, anything they want. It’s the ultimate playground for collection.’

However, neither LinkedIn nor the US intelligence agencies have revealed the scale of spy recruitment operation conducted by the Chinese intelligence agencies. Also, no details about the number of fake accounts and the specific Americans contacted for espionage have been disclosed so far. Paul Rockwell, LinkedIn’s head of trust and safety, confirmed that the Microsoft-owned company has been in touch with US law enforcement organizations regarding the espionage efforts of Chinese intelligence agencies on LinkedIn.

As per Reuter’s report, Chinese intelligence agencies are targeting people with access to military secrets and government files as well as experts in multiple fields such as nuclear physics, supercomputing, nanotechnology, healthcare, stealth technology and green energy among others. The headhunting for recruiting an American as a spy includes government officials, intelligence officers, scientists as well as students.

The Chinese intelligence officials reportedly contact their targets using fake LinkedIn profiles and offer rewards such as a business proposal, academic co-operation and an all expenses paid trip to China among others. China’s foreign ministry, on the other hand, has denied the accusations, calling them nonsense and having ulterior motives.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i Review: A Powerful Workhorse

It’s been quite some time since Intel announced its 11th-gen laptop processors, complete with the new logo design and Intel Iris Xe graphics. And yet, so far I’ve not gotten my hands on a laptop packing the new processor and iGPU. That all changed when Lenovo sent over the IdeaPad Slim 5i (Rs. 61,990) with […] The article Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i Review: A Powerful Workhorse was first published on Beebom
Post a Comment
Read more

Twitter Wants to Build an ‘Open and Decentralized’ Social Media Platform

In an attempt to create a Facebook competitor, which everyone flocks to, Twitter became increasingly centralized over the years. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey believes that’s the case and has now tweeted a lengthy plan to fund research to build an open and decentralized standard for social media platforms. It will “ultimately become a standard” that Twitter’s client will be based upon. Dubbed Bluesky, this project will see a team of up to five researchers , which could include open-source architects, engineers, and designers, being on-boarded in the near future. Currently, Bluesky has no team members but Dorsey tweeted that Twitter’s CTO Parag Agrawal has been tasked with finding a lead. The folks over at Firefox have already extended a helping hand, saying how the non-profit has contributed to decentralization. Enough jibber-jabber, but what exactly is Bluesky? And what does it intend to achieve? Dorsey, in his tweetstorm , states that the challenges being faced by centralized social
Post a Comment
Read more

Mysterious Drones Spotted in Colorado and Nebraska; Sources Unknown

A group of drones was reportedly been spotted in the sky at night last week in Colorado and Nebraska that made the residents anxious and worried. The police officials in charge have no idea regarding where these drones are from. “They’ve been doing a grid search, a grid pattern. They fly one square and then they fly another square,”  Colorado’s Phillips County Sheriff Thomas Elliot told the Denver Post. The drones have an approximate six-foot wingspan and stay 200 to 300 feet away from buildings. At least 17 drones have been spotted till now. They appear at around 7 PM at night and disappear at around 10 PM . Until now, the drones have not been caught doing any illegal or unofficial activities.  “They do not seem to be malicious. They don’t seem to be doing anything that would indicate criminal activity,” Sheriff Elliott added. The Federal Aviation Agency, the Air Force, Drug Enforcement Administration, and US Army Forces Command confirmed that the drones did not belong to them.
Post a Comment
Read more