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- A Chinese spy created several fake LinkedIn profiles to target UK officials, The Times of London reports.
- A recruitment consultant was offered $10,000 each time to hand over details of an intelligence services candidate.
- Another Chinese agent previously confessed to using LinkedIn to find people likely to possess sensitive information.
A Chinese spy has been using LinkedIn to try to get UK officials to hand over state secrets, The Times of London reported.
Over a period of at least five years, the spy – who is said to have been working from the Chinese Ministry of State Security's (MSS) headquarters in Beijing – created several profiles using stock images as profile pictures, and sometimes listed fake companies as the employer, before approaching security officials, civil servants, and scientists who had access to sensitive information, according to The Times.
Western security services believe this is the most prolific spy in a generation to work against British interests, per The Times. The spy's main alias was Robin Zhang, according to the newspaper, though the names Eric Chen Yixi, Robin Cao, Lincoln Lam, John Lee, and Eric Kim were also used.
The spy's strategy involved building up relationships with people and then offering them large sums of money for information.
One recruitment consultant was offered $10,000 for every time they handed over details of a candidate from the intelligence services, while other targets were told they could have free trips to China and lucrative conference appearances, per The Times.
The UK's security minister Tom Tugendhat said in a statement shared with Insider that the Home Office is aware of Chinese Intelligence using LinkedIn and other social media sites to target British citizens.
"It's not just government employees who need to exercise caution – it's businesses with commercially sensitive information, as well as researchers and academics too," he said, adding: "We're taking action to disrupt and deter these threats. Our new National Security Act has put our espionage laws back on the front foot, and MI5 are helping people understand the hallmarks of fake profiles used by foreign spies and other malicious actors through their Think Before You Link campaign."
This isn't the first time that Chinese spies have tried to target people via LinkedIn.
In 2020, one man pleaded guilty to being an illegal agent of China and said he used a "professional networking site" — which The Washington Post identified as LinkedIn — to find people likely to possess sensitive information.
Hackers linked to a North Korea-tied cybercrime group – known as Lazarus – posed as recruiters for US defense companies before sending malicious code over LinkedIn's private messaging feature, compromising at least two European defense companies, Reuters reported.
In a statement shared with Insider, a LinkedIn spokesperson said: "Creating a fake account is a clear violation of our terms of service. Our Threat Prevention & Defense team actively seeks out signs of state-sponsored activity and removes fake accounts using information we uncover and intelligence from a variety of sources, including government agencies.
"Our Transparency Report details the actions that we take to keep LinkedIn a safe place where real people can connect with professionals they know and trust."