I’ve been saying this for years: Linked In is a spies dream. A data gold mine.
A Web Scale Cambridge.
Chief U.S. spy catcher says China using LinkedIn to recruit Americans
11–20 of 120 posts
Re: Chief U.S. spy catcher says China using LinkedIn to recruit Americans
#12I found it interesting that the espionage is largely aimed at the private sector and not the government: > About 70 percent of China’s overall espionage is aimed at the U.S. private sector, rather than the government, said Joshua Skule, the head of the FBI’s intelligence division, which is charged with countering foreign espionage in the United States. > “They are conducting economic espionage at a rate that is unpar…
Think of a scenario where certain government employees have accounts on some Private sector service: Maybe a Grindr or Tinder -- if they can work to obtain any sort of compromising information from those services - they can then use it to manipulate government employees ("Do what I say, or i'll out you")... In fact, pretty sure a Chinese co. recently obtained controlling interest of Grindr.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/12/technology/grindr-sells-s...
Re: Chief U.S. spy catcher says China using LinkedIn to recruit Americans
#13I found it interesting that the espionage is largely aimed at the private sector and not the government: > About 70 percent of China’s overall espionage is aimed at the U.S. private sector, rather than the government, said Joshua Skule, the head of the FBI’s intelligence division, which is charged with countering foreign espionage in the United States. > “They are conducting economic espionage at a rate that is unpar…
Why? That's the proven strategy to leapfrog yourself into a developed economy. It's what the US, Germany, and Japan all did.
The US, Germany, and Japan are all technology leaders. None of those nations leapfrogged into a developed nation by copying others.
Re: Chief U.S. spy catcher says China using LinkedIn to recruit Americans
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
They do target the government workers as well. (Well I guess I should say other people do) People target those on linked in who have listed security clearances.
> People target those on linked in who have listed security clearances. Maybe, but I think they have a much better source: I suspect OPM data taken has been sold and lent out so they do not need to trust linked in; they can go directly to the source ( https://www.opm.gov/cybersecurity/cybersecurity-incidents/ ). I wonder if it also contains "concerns" that can indicate weak points for recruiting for a true one-stop s…
> I wonder if it also contains "concerns" that can indicate weak points for recruiting for a true one-stop shopping?
It does. IIRC, it contained security clearance investigation files, so they could probably identify people who had issues but just squeaked by the process.
But that's not the only use. The OPM data could be used for counterintelligence, to identify US agents in the field.
Re: Chief U.S. spy catcher says China using LinkedIn to recruit Americans
#15I found it interesting that the espionage is largely aimed at the private sector and not the government: > About 70 percent of China’s overall espionage is aimed at the U.S. private sector, rather than the government, said Joshua Skule, the head of the FBI’s intelligence division, which is charged with countering foreign espionage in the United States. > “They are conducting economic espionage at a rate that is unpar…
It would be humorous if they recruited employees of startups, the philosophy of moving fast and break things along with spends as much money as possible as fast as you can will have China using sub-par software and bankrupt within months, countries can't pivot and looking for exit through acquisition would be nigh impossible!
Re: Chief U.S. spy catcher says China using LinkedIn to recruit Americans
#16I'm sure the OPM hack through which they got all sorts of private blackmail-worthy info on federal employees helped.
Re: Chief U.S. spy catcher says China using LinkedIn to recruit Americans
#17Honestly, I’d do anything to die in the hellish fury of a nuclear blast, as it destroys an entire city. I was really disappointed in Kim Jong Un caving on his threats.
I’ll do anything to ratchet up tensions and provoke a nuclear exchange. Where do I sign up?
Re: Chief U.S. spy catcher says China using LinkedIn to recruit Americans
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why? That's the proven strategy to leapfrog yourself into a developed economy. It's what the US, Germany, and Japan all did.
The US, Germany, and Japan are all technology leaders. None of those nations leapfrogged into a developed nation by copying others.
A counterexample: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Slater
Re: Chief U.S. spy catcher says China using LinkedIn to recruit Americans
#19A company I worked for in a $hot_field had some dev servers breached from some IPs in China; they got some of our app's buggy class files and not much more. It's the kind of app you need a bunch of corporate culture to use effectively, so the jars aren't much use.
Anyway, a few days later, a bunch of us in our R+D group got LI invites from Chinese recruiters out of the blue. Because of the timing and supposed motivation, we assumed we'd been approached for industrial espionage purposes, but there's not much you can do aside from decline the invite.
Re: Chief U.S. spy catcher says China using LinkedIn to recruit Americans
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why? That's the proven strategy to leapfrog yourself into a developed economy. It's what the US, Germany, and Japan all did.
The US, Germany, and Japan are all technology leaders. None of those nations leapfrogged into a developed nation by copying others.
Ah yeah, I remember reading about that in my American History textbook! We started the industrial revolution right after we signed the declaration of independence, it was the British who copied us.