China, Russia sending attractive women to seduce US tech execs: report | Latest Tech News
China and Russia have deployed attractive women to the United States to seduce unwitting Silicon Valley tech executives as half of a “sex warfare” operation aimed at stealing American technology secrets and techniques, according to a report.
Industry insiders told The Times of London that they’ve been approached by would-be honeypots — some of whom have even managed to ensnare their targets by marrying them and having youngsters.
Chinese and Russian brokers are also utilizing social media, startup competitions and enterprise capital investments to infiltrate the center of America’s tech industry, the report said.
Chinese and Russian “honeypots” have been deployed to Silicon Valley to ensnare US-based tech executives, according to a report. Svyatoslav Lypynskyy – stock.adobe.com
“I’m getting an enormous number of very sophisticated LinkedIn requests from the same type of attractive young Chinese woman,” James Mulvenon, chief intelligence officer at risk-assessment firm Pamir Consulting, told The Times.
“It really seems to have ramped up recently.”
A former US counterintelligence official who now works for Silicon Valley startups told The Times that he just lately investigated one case of a “beautiful” Russian girl who labored at a US-based aerospace company, where she met an American colleague whom she finally married.
According to the previous counterintelligence official, the lady in query attended a modelling academy when she was in her twenties. Afterward, she was enrolled in a “Russian soft-power school” before she fell off the radar for a decade — only to re-emerge in the US as an knowledgeable in cryptocurrency.
China and Russia are allegedly waging “sex warfare” on the US in an attempt to steal tech secrets and techniques. shevtsovy – stock.adobe.com
“But she doesn’t stay in crypto,” the ex-official said. “She is trying to get to the heights of the military-space innovation community. The husband’s totally oblivious.”
The former counterespionage official told The Times that these varieties of situations occur more often than people assume.
“Showing up, marrying a target, having kids with a target — and conducting a lifelong collection operation, it’s very uncomfortable to think about but it’s so prevalent,” he said.
“If I wanted to be out of the shadows, I’d write a book on it.”
According to Mulvenon, security turned away two attractive Chinese women who tried to gain entry into a business convention on China investment dangers in Virginia last week.
Chinese and Russian brokers are also utilizing social media, startup competitions and enterprise capital investments to infiltrate the center of America’s tech industry, the report said. engel.ac – stock.adobe.com
“We didn’t let them in,” he said. “But they had all the information [about the event] and everything else.”
He added: “It is a phenomenon. And I will tell you: it is weird.”
Mulvenon, a counterespionage knowledgeable, said that the seduction ways used by overseas honeypots was a “real vulnerability” for the US “because we, by statute and culture, do not do that.”
“So they have an asymmetric advantage when it comes to sex warfare,” he said.
Industry insiders say honeypots have managed to ensnare their targets by marrying them and having youngsters. ivanko80 – stock.adobe.com
A senior US counterintelligence official told the publication that America’s enemies have changed Cold War–period spies with on a regular basis operatives who pose as businesspeople, traders or analysts.
“We’re not chasing a KGB agent in a smoky guesthouse in Germany anymore,” the official said.
“Our adversaries — particularly the Chinese — are using a whole-of-society approach to exploit all aspects of our technology and Western talent.”
The House Committee on Homeland Security has warned that the Chinese Communist Party carried out more than 60 espionage operations inside the US over the past 4 years, though former officers consider the true quantity is much greater.
American authorities have repeatedly accused Chinese operatives of focusing on cutting-edge industries. In one case, Klaus Pflugbeil, a resident of Ningbo, China, was sentenced last December to two years in prison for attempting to promote stolen Tesla commerce secrets and techniques at a Las Vegas convention.
“I’m getting an enormous number of very sophisticated LinkedIn requests from the same type of attractive young Chinese woman,” James Mulvenon, chief intelligence officer at risk-assessment firm Pamir Consulting, told The Times of London. Pamir Consulting LLC
“In stealing trade secrets from an American electric-vehicle manufacturer to use in his own China-based company, Pflugbeil’s actions stood to benefit the PRC [People’s Republic of China] in a critical industry with national security implications,” said Matthew Olsen, the US assistant attorney common for national security.
The Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property estimates that China-linked company espionage prices US taxpayers as a lot as $600 billion a yr.
The Post has sought remark from the Russian and Chinese governments.
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