Friday, March 29, 2024
Homesocial mediaHow Chinese spies used LinkedIn to snoop on German politicians

How Chinese spies used LinkedIn to snoop on German politicians

  • Germany's intelligence service BfV publishes details of fake Chinese profiles on LinkedIn it says were created to gather information about German politicians and officials
  • More than 10,000 Germans were contacted on LinkedIn by fake profiles
  • Profiles were disguised as headhunters, consultants and scholars

Chinese spies used Linkedin to get information on German officials, according to Germany's intelligence agency bfV.studioEAST | Getty Images

Germany's intelligence service has published the details of social network profiles which it says are fronts faked by Chinese intelligence to gather personal information about German officials and politicians.

The BfV domestic intelligence service took the unusual step of naming individual profiles it says are fake and fake organizations to warn public officials about the risk of leaking valuable personal information via social media.

"Chinese intelligence services are active on networks like LinkedIn and have been trying for a while to extract information and find intelligence sources in this way," including seeking data on users' habits, hobbies and political interests, they said.

Nine months of research had found that more than 10,000 German citizens had been contacted on the LinkedIn professional networking site by fake profiles disguised as headhunters, consultants, think-tankers or scholars, the BfV said.

"There could be a large number of target individuals and fake profiles that have not yet been identified," they added.

Among the faked profiles whose details were published were that of "Rachel Li", identified as a "headhunter" at "RiseHR", and an "Alex Li", a "Project Manager at Center for Sino-Europe Development Studies".

Many of the profile pictures show stylish and visually appealing young men and women. The picture of "Laeticia Chen", a manager at the "China Center of International Politics and Economy" was nicked from an online fashion catalogue, an official said.

A Reuters review of the profiles showed that some were connected to senior diplomats and politicians from several European countries. There was no way to establish whether contacts had taken place beyond the initial social media "add".

The warning reflects growing concern in European and western intelligence circles at Chinese covert activities in their countries and follows warnings from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency over attempts by the economic giant's security services to recruit U.S. citizens as agents.

The BfV invited concerned users to contact them if they encountered social media profiles that seemed suspect.

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