‘Data can place the lives of frontline military or other personnel at risk’: FBI warns that China is luring Western military and intelligence operatives with ‘gig-work’ job offers to steal secrets

• China is luring military and intelligence workers with ‘gig-work’ jobs
• Employees are lured through interviews and written assessments
• China pieces together separate reports into ‘a comprehensive operational picture’

China is targeting Western military, intelligence, and government employees with honeypot job offers in order to steal secrets and gather information on government policy, as well as military strategy, capabilities and installations.

You may already be familiar with North Korea’s attempts to sneak into Western tech companies through job applications, but China has switched up the playbook to lure those looking for employment in the foreign policy and defense analyst fields.

The problem has become so severe that the FBI, alongside the Five Eyes intelligence community, has issued a warning against the employment scam in order to prevent the unintentional sharing of classified and privileged information with China.

The warning states that Chinese intelligence operatives are posing as employees of private consultancies, think tanks or human resources offering lucrative job offers through job ads posted on professional networking platforms, online hiring, and freelance “gig work” websites such as LinkedIn, Indeed, and Upwork.

Once the lure has attracted a potential target, an interview is scheduled where the target is probed for their links to government contacts, or about their military roles and unit activities, and information about their home base or naval vessel.

The candidates who pass the interview stage will then be invited to partake in a written assessment focused on analyzing China’s bilateral relations, geopolitical issues relating to the Indo-Pacific region, or on wider defense issues and international trade.

If the written assessment shows promise, the hirers will attempt to probe the potential employee for more privileged information, and will use the pretext of moving to a ‘secure’ encrypted messaging platform to build trust.

Once the relationship is solidified, the candidates will begin receiving payments for their reports, with the FBI noting that significantly higher payments will be made for sensitive information. The payments are often routed through third-party payment platforms, such as PayPal, Payoneer, Zelle, Skrill, and Wise. The recruiters will also use Western Union, e-transfer and cryptocurrency transfers.

The strategy of the Chinese intelligence operatives is not to probe sensitive information from a single source, which could arouse suspicion, but to use multiple reports from multiple candidates to piece together “a comprehensive operational picture.”

But it isn’t just military and intelligence personnel who are the targets of this scheme, as those with privileged access to government information also include academics, journalists, freelance writers, think tank employees, or anyone with links to defense, security, policy and economic sectors.

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Benedict is a Senior Security Writer at TechRadar Pro, where he has specialized in covering the intersection of geopolitics, cyber-warfare, and business security.

Benedict provides detailed analysis on state-sponsored threat actors, APT groups, and the protection of critical national infrastructure, with his reporting bridging the gap between technical threat intelligence and B2B security strategy.

Benedict holds an MA (Distinction) in Security, Intelligence, and Diplomacy from the University of Buckingham Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies (BUCSIS), with his specialization providing him with a robust academic framework for deconstructing complex international conflicts and intelligence operations, and the ability to translate intricate security data into actionable insights.