China is targeting personnel linked to the English-speaking Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance — Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K, and the U.S. — on job websites to get access to classified or sensitive information, the group said Wednesday.
In a bulletin, the Five Eyes powers highlighted an “aggressive” online recruitment strategy where spies for Chinese military intelligence pose as workers acting on behalf of private businesses or think tanks. They then allegedly advertise for bogus jobs such as foreign policy or defense analysts, before pressuring candidates to provide “non-public” information.
The alliance said Chinese agents pretending to be human resources consultants for legitimate-looking companies use websites such as LinkedIn, Indeed and Upwork to post job ads.
“China’s military intelligence services are using an increasingly wide array of professional networking sites and online job platforms to target Five Eyes government and military personnel and anyone with access to classified or privileged information,” the group said.
Britain’s security minister, Dan Jarvis, urged anyone who could be a potential target for China’s intelligence services to be on guard for “signs of online targeting and avoid inadvertently compromising our security.”
The types of workers who may be targeted include security clearance holders, military personnel including those stationed in the Indo-Pacific region, and people with indirect or peripheral access to government information, such as journalists or think tank employees.
After posting the advertisements, Chinese agents are said to trawl through applicants’ CVs to find who might have access to useful information, with subsequent interviews conducted virtually.
The job hopefuls are then asked to write a report on topics such as China’s relations with other countries, defense or trade, before being pushed for more sensitive information and the conversation moved to encrypted messaging platforms.
Recruits are paid a few hundred to several thousand dollars per report on payment platforms including PayPal, Western Union and cryptocurrency.
The Chinese Embassy in London condemned the unprecedented joint bulletin on Thursday, saying the allegation of a so-called “Chinese espionage threat” is “entirely fabricated and constitutes malicious slander.”
