chinese espionage operations and tactics

citizens with access to classified information. Chinese tech companies’ presence in American markets and supply chains seems like a secondary threat at most.īefore instituting sweeping measures to deny China any access to Americans’ personal data on national security grounds, it is also worth considering targeted actions to protect the relatively few U.S. cybersecurity and data privacy law, policy, and implementation. 13) The major digital espionage risks, then, stem from pervasive gaps in U.S. William Evanina, then director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said in 2019 that LinkedIn was China’s “ultimate playground for collection.” 12 (Although LinkedIn announced last year that it would leave the Chinese market, that won’t stop Beijing from scouring Americans’ own LinkedIn pages. prosecutors, China has successfully recruited multiple Americans to spy for Beijing based on information in these targets’ public LinkedIn profiles. 11 Then there is simple data scraping from the open internet, which is apparently one of Beijing’s most effective espionage techniques. military and Intelligence Community reportedly use similar techniques to track foreign targets, so there is every reason to believe that Beijing does the same. journalists have vividly demonstrated how easy it is to obtain geolocation and other data to identify and track prominent Americans. In fact, sensitive personal information about Americans can be bought outright from U.S. 9 China’s most successful known bulk collection efforts were all remote cyber operations. But these were all remote cyber operations none apparently required any Chinese insider access to U.S. Office of Personnel Management and the compromises of Marriott, Equifax, and Anthem. When American officials describe China’s most successful and damaging bulk collection efforts to date, they usually point to the devastating hack of the U.S. However, restrictive measures may always not be very effective in thwarting Chinese theft of Americans’ personal data, for the simple reason that Beijing seems to prefer other ways of acquiring that data. These risks provide some basis for limiting Chinese companies’ presence in U.S. officials have publicly alleged that Huawei “has the capability secretly to access sensitive and personal information in systems it maintains and sells,” and that “information from Huawei routers has ultimately ended up in hands that would appear to be the state.” 8 Risks and Limitations of Defensive Measures intelligence officials, these companies already help to process bulk data in the possession of Chinese intelligence agencies. Chinese companies are legally required to comply with such requests, and according to U.S. Beijing could, for example, pressure a Chinese tech company to share its private data on American users. After all, U.S.-China technological ties provide the Chinese government with additional opportunities to harvest Americans’ personal data (just as these ties may give Washington ways to collect on Chinese targets). 6Ĭhina’s intelligence targeting of American officials has become a major justification for U.S. agencies also cite the risk that China could use sensitive medical, financial, or other personal information to blackmail or co-opt American officials. intelligence officials believe such techniques have enabled Beijing to quickly identify undercover personnel from the Central Intelligence Agency around the world and monitor or disrupt their activities.

officials assess that China assembles and analyzes large quantities of Americans’ personal information to identify potential targets for intelligence collection or other subterfuge. As a result, China often first seeks out sensitive unclassified data that it can later exploit to acquire classified information. national security secrets are shielded by a robust system of technological, physical, and personnel controls. intelligence activities in China-a top American collection priority-and elsewhere. 3 And they have compromised America’s own espionage networks, reportedly helping to expose and disrupt U.S. political campaigns to gain insight into future American policymaking. military secrets in recent years, including aircraft designs. China’s intelligence agencies have stolen a significant volume of U.S.

1 Although Beijing’s theft of intellectual property and other economically valuable data remains the primary concern, Chinese national security espionage is also harmful. The Federal Bureau of Investigation currently describes China’s intelligence activities as “the greatest long-term threat to our nation’s information.” 1 The bureau has thousands of active counterintelligence cases relating to China and opens multiple new cases daily. Table of Contents Risks of Interdependence

Chinese espionage operations and tactics