China using LinkedIn to recruit Americans, claims US spy catcher
The foreign ministry in Beijing described the accusation as ‘complete nonsense’
The United States’ top spy catcher said Chinese espionage agencies are using fake LinkedIn accounts to try to recruit Americans with access to government and commercial secrets, and the company should shut them down.
William Evanina, the US counter-intelligence chief, said intelligence and law enforcement officials have told LinkedIn, owned by Microsoft, about China’s “super aggressive” efforts on the site.
He said the Chinese campaign includes contacting thousands of LinkedIn members at a time, but he declined to say how many fake accounts US intelligence had discovered, how many Americans may have been contacted and how much success China has had in the recruitment drive.
German and British authorities have previously claimed that Beijing is using LinkedIn to try to recruit people as spies. But this is the first time a US official has made similar claims.
Evanina said LinkedIn could copy the response of Twitter, Google and Facebook, which have all purged fake accounts allegedly linked to Iranian and Russian intelligence agencies.