The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), MI5, and the governments of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand warned on June 5 about efforts by Chinese intelligence agents to target Western workers online.

The agencies said the agents are using recruitment sites such as LinkedIn, Microsoft’s professional networking platform, to seek non-public information that could be useful to Beijing.

The advisory is part of a broader Five Eyes counterintelligence effort.

It said China’s military intelligence services are using professional networking and job platforms to target government and military personnel, as well as others with access to classified or sensitive information.

Officials said the operatives pose as recruiters, consultancies, think tanks, or human resources firms at fake companies based outside China.

They advertise nonexistent job opportunities and seek to build long-term relationships with individuals who hold security clearances or serve in the military, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region.

The targets also include journalists, academics, and think-tank staff.

The warning follows earlier MI5 alerts that Chinese operatives had sought to lure at least 20,000 Britons working in sensitive areas with job offers.

LinkedIn said fake accounts and identity misrepresentation violate its rules and that it is focused on detecting state-sponsored abuse.

Its transparency report says automated systems blocked 97.1% of the fake accounts it stopped from January to June 2025, with 99.5% caught before a member report.

🔗 Source: TechCrunch

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