China taps LinkedIn to steal state secrets

Chinese intelligence agents are using LinkedIn to try to steal state secrets by recruiting military and security officials, defence contractors and public servants.

MI5 head Ken McCallum took up his role in April 2020. He says China represents a greater long-term threat to British interests than Russia.

Chinese intelligence agents are using LinkedIn to try to steal state secrets by recruiting British military and security officials, defence contractors and civil servants.

This has emerged as the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation joins Five Eyes in warning citizens of danger through a Think Before You Link campaign.

Spies are creating fake business profiles on the professional networking site so that they can identify targets and obtain classified information.

Whitehall sources warned that they had offered lucrative business opportunities and enticing sums of money to lure present and former government and private sector workers with access to classified information or commercially sensitive technology.

The operation is feared to be on a mass scale. Former employees who had high security clearance are considered particularly vulnerable because many publicly advertise their professional history to gain private-sector contracts.

MI5 will launch an awareness campaign next month urging potential targets to take greater care online. They will urge users to look out for fake companies approaching them and recruiters who are overly flattering and try to secure meetings abroad.

China is not mentioned specifically but Whitehall sources said most infiltration attempts generated there. Although it refers generally to professional networking sites, Chinese spies are said to favour LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional networking site with 30 million users in Britain.

A man walks past Thames House, headquarters of the British domestic security service, MI5 in central London.

There is growing concern about hostile activity by China including attempts to steal UK intellectual property and target technology and infrastructure. This year the government is expected to announce an overhaul of espionage laws to toughen the response to activity by China and Russia, including an official registry of foreign agents.

Senior intelligence officials including Ken McCallum, the head of MI5, which has a similar role to ASIO’s, say China represents a greater long-term threat to British interests than Russia.

Whitehall sources said that targeting Britons through LinkedIn allowed Chinese spies to conduct their activities at home without fear of any sanction.

The Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI), the arm of MI5 that offers protective security advice to business and government, will launch a campaign next month. Some details are already on its website.

Think Before You Link will warn present and former employees in sensitive sectors that hostile actors and criminals may act “anonymously or dishonestly online” in an attempt to connect with people who have access to valuable and sensitive information.

Part of the Mi5-CPNI online campaign warning of recruitment threats from foreign states.

The CPNI says: “The consequences of engaging with these profiles can damage individual careers, the interests of your organisation and of UK national security and prosperity.”

The campaign has been adopted across the Five Eyes intelligence network, with similar warnings to allies in America, Canada, Germany, Australia and New Zealand, underlining the “nature and volume of the threat”. See ASIO’s warning to Australians here.

ASIO’s warning page on online threats.

Potential targets will be warned not to advertise their security clearance, details of sensitive roles, or make all profile information publicly available.

Sources said that hostile actors will pose as reputable interested employers or headhunters when their real intent is to gather as much information as possible from the target.

They will offer conference fees, money for apparently legitimate business reports and travel to China with hotels and expenses paid. Once the individual travels they will use soft means to try to elicit sensitive information but if this is not successful they can attempt to gather compromising material to blackmail them.

Paul Rockwell, the head of trust and safety at LinkedIn, said: “We actively seek out signs of state sponsored activity and quickly take action to protect members. Our threat intelligence team removes fake accounts using information we uncover and intelligence from a variety of sources including government agencies. We enforce our policies: fraudulent activity with an intent to mislead or lie to our members is a violation of our terms of service.”

In 2017 BfV, the German intelligence agency, alleged Chinese intelligence used LinkedIn to target at least 10,000 German officials and politicians.

Last year Kevin Mallory, an ex-CIA officer, was jailed for 20 years for spying. Mallory, who was in debt, sold secrets after being approached by a fake Chinese headhunter on LinkedIn.

The Times