US espionage reported that Chinese intelligence agencies would use fictitious LinkedIn accounts to try to recruit Americans who have access to government and trade secrets.
William Evanina, the US chief of counterintelligence, told Reuters that intelligence and law enforcement officials have already communicated to Microsoft-owned LinkedIn about China's aggression on the platform.
He then specified that the Chinese campaign includes contacting thousands of LinkedIn members, but declined to say how many fake accounts American intelligence discovered, how many Americans may have been contacted, and China's level of success in the recruiting process.
The German and British authorities have previously warned their citizens that Beijing is using LinkedIn to try to recruit them as spies. But this is the first time that a US official has made public the new challenge in the United States and has indicated that it is a bigger problem than was previously known.
Evanina said LinkedIn should analyze and copy the autoresponder from Twitter, Google and Facebook, which communicate the deletion of fake accounts allegedly linked to Iranian and Russian intelligence agencies.
"We have recently noticed that Twitter is deleting millions of fake accounts, and our request is that LinkedIn also go in this direction."
It is very rare for a senior US intelligence officer to appoint an American private company and to publicly recommend to intervene.
LinkedIn reported that 575 has millions of users in more than 200 countries, including over 150 millions of users in the United States.
LinkedIn's chief of security, Paul Rockwell, confirmed that the company has spoken with US law enforcement to discuss the Chinese espionage issue. Earlier this month, LinkedIn said it removed “at least 40” fake accounts whose users were attempting to contact LinkedIn members associated with unidentified political organizations. Rockwell, however, did not specify whether the accounts were Chinese.
"We are doing everything we can to identify and stop this activity," Rockwell told Reuters. Rockwell refused to provide fake account numbers associated with Chinese intelligence agencies. He said the "company moves quickly to limit the action of such accounts and stop any damage," but did not provide the details. LinkedIn "is a victim," Evanina said, while the Chinese foreign ministry disputed Evanina's allegations.
"We do not know what evidence US officials have to reach this conclusion, what they say is complete nonsense and has other reasons ", said the ministry in a statement.
Evanina then specified that she was speaking with hard data referring to the case of Kevin Mallory, a retired CIA officer investigated for conspiring on behalf of China.
A fluent Mandarin speaker, Mallory had financial problems when he was contacted via a LinkedIn message in February 2017 from a Chinese citizen who said he was a researcher, according to court documents and trial evidence.
The individual, using the name Richard Yang, arranged a phone call between Mallory and a man who claimed to work in a Shanghai think tank.
During two subsequent trips to Shanghai, Mallory agreed to sell US defense secrets - sent via a special cellular device that was delivered to him. He is expected to be sentenced in September and could spend the rest of his life in prison.
While Russia, Iran, North Korea and other nations also use LinkedIn and other platforms to identify recruiting targets, US intelligence officials said China is the most prolific in that sector and poses the biggest threat.
US officials said China's Ministry of State Security uses individuals who are not employed by intelligence agencies but work with them to create fake accounts and approach potential recruits.
US intelligence said the targets include experts in fields such as supercomputing, nuclear energy, nanotechnology, semiconductors, stealth technology, healthcare, hybrid grains, seeds and green energy.
Chinese intelligence services use fraudulent or bogus business proposals. Academics and scientists, for example, are paid for academic or professional papers and, in some cases, are later pressured to transmit U.S. trade secrets.
Some of those who created fake accounts were linked to IP addresses associated with Chinese intelligence agencies, while others were set up by fictitious companies, including some in the Human Resorces business, a senior US intelligence official said. who requested anonymity.
The official said "some correlations" were found between Americans targeted by LinkedIn and data hacked by the Office of Personnel Management, a US government agency, during attacks in 2014 and 2015.
Hackers stole confidential information, such as addresses, financial and medical records, work history and the fingerprints of over 22 million Americans who had undergone preliminary checks for security evictions.
The United States identified China as the prime suspect in massive hacking, a claim the Chinese foreign ministry at the time called "logically absurd."
About 70 percent of China's overall espionage is aimed at the US private sector, rather than the government, said Joshua Skule, the head of the FBI's intelligence division tasked with countering foreign espionage in the United States.
"They are conducting economic espionage at a pace that is unmatched in our history," he said.
Evanina said five current former US officials - including Mallory - have been indicted or convicted of spying for China over the past two and a half years. He also said that further cases of suspected spying for China by US citizens are being investigated. The US intelligence services warn current and former officials of the threat and inform them of the security measures they can take to protect themselves. Some current and former officials post meaningful details online about their employment history in the government - even sometimes naming classified intelligence units that the government absolutely does not recognize.