- China is attracting military and intelligence workers with “temporary” jobs
- Employees are attracted through interviews and written evaluations.
- China puts together separate reports to create ‘comprehensive operational picture’
China is targeting Western military, intelligence and government employees with honeypot job offers to steal secrets and gather information on government policies, as well as military strategy, capabilities and facilities.
You may already be familiar with North Korea’s attempts to sneak into Western tech companies through job applications, but China has changed the playbook to attract job seekers in the fields of foreign policy and defense analysts.
The problem has become so serious that the FBI, along with the Five Eyes intelligence community, has issued a warning against job scams to prevent the inadvertent sharing of classified and privileged information with China.
China lures agents to share secrets
The warning claims that Chinese intelligence agents pose as employees of private consultancies, think tanks or human resources offering lucrative job offers through job advertisements posted on professional networking platforms, online recruiting and “freelancing” websites such as LinkedIn, Indeed and Upwork.
Once the decoy has lured in a potential target, an interview is scheduled in which the target is vetted for ties to government contacts, or about their military duties and unit activities, and information about their home base or warship.
Candidates who pass the interview stage will be invited to participate in a written assessment focused on analysis of China’s bilateral relations, geopolitical issues related to the Indo-Pacific region, or broader international trade and defense issues.
If the written evaluation is promising, recruiters will attempt to probe the potential employee for more privileged information and use the pretext of moving to a “secure” encrypted messaging platform to build trust.
Once the relationship is solidified, candidates will begin receiving payments for their reports, and the FBI noted that significantly higher payments will be made for confidential information. Payments are typically made through third-party payment platforms such as PayPal, Payoneer, Zelle, Skrill, and Wise. Recruiters will also use Western Union, wire transfers, and cryptocurrency transfers.
The strategy of Chinese intelligence agents is not to probe sensitive information from a single source, which could raise suspicions, but to use multiple reports from multiple candidates to put together “a comprehensive operational picture.”
But it is not only military and intelligence personnel who are the targets of this plan, since those with privileged access to government information also include academics, journalists, independent writers, employees of think tanks or anyone with links to the defense, security, political and economic sectors.
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