Speaker 1: We'll come back everybody. Today, we're looking at the LinkedIn trap.
You've probably heard some stories about it, but it's not
a hypothetical threat. This is not some analysts somewhere connecting
dots on a whiteboard, five of the most powerful intel
agencies on the planet stepping out of the shadows together
and saying this is happening. On June third, twenty twenty six,
To five Eyes Alliance released a joint security bulletin titled
Safeguarding are Secrets. Five nations, five domestic spy agencies, all
five together at the same time. So this is a
serious problem. They're telling it because they need you to know.
So what are you talking about? Anyway? China's military intelligence
services are using an increasingly wide array of professional networking
sites and online job platforms to target Five Eyes, government
and military personnel, and anyone with access to classified or
privileged information. The platforms include LinkedIn, Indeed and upwork places
where you go to find a job, a better opportunity life,
the place where a message in your inbox feels professional, legitimate.
Here's where the operation actually works. Intelligence operators pose as
private consulting firms think tanks or recruitment agencies to attract
foreign policy experts, defense analysts, military personnel. They build out profiles,
they create fake companies that look real. They post job listings,
They reach out to you by name, and they have
done their homework. They know where you work, where your
clearest level is, what your specialty is. They ask at first,
is never anything that sounds like espionage. They want to
report an analysis, a brief in some policy area, something
that sounds like consulting work, something that sounds like a
side hustle. Recruits are often offered payments ranging from hundreds
of thousands of dollars for reports through research assignments, but
some compensation reportedly made through cryptocurrency. And then it escalates.
Once you've taken the money, you've written that first report,
you're in and you may not even realize. As they
get the request and more specific the pressure builds. The
target is not just what you know today, it is access.
Think about who they are going after. The types of
workers who may be targeted include security clearance holders, military personnel, professors,
policy advisors, journalists. And here's the part that is not
Goet talked about enough. This is not a new playbook
China has been running this version for years. What is
the need? What is new is the scale. The bulletin
describes a tactic as a scaled, methodical, methodical approach to
identifying sources through seemingly legitimate unemployment opportunities. The Five Eyes
are not sounding this alarm because they caught a couple
of amateur spies. They're sounding it because the operation has
produced results. The warning stated that such activities have in
some cases resulted in criminal prosecutions, job terminations, and the
loss of security clearances among individuals in five by countries.
And here's what I fought. I've said directly, certain types
of data can place the lives of frontline military or
other personnel at risk and can weaken economic prosperity. They're
not just talking about firing you, and they're talking about prison.
So what do you actually do with this information? Well,
knowing is the first thing. Verify everything as the second.
If someone reaches out to you on LinkedIn offering consulting
work related to your professional background, especially anything touching government
or defense or policy, assume nothing is what it appears
to be. Look at the company. Call the company, not
the number they give you. Find it independently. If it
does not check out, disengage next reporting to the five eyes,
the FBI, five csis ASIO, and ZSIS. They all have
mechanisms for reporting suspicious contact. Use them. One report might
connect the dot that breaks the open an entire network.
Talk to the people around you, your colleagues, your teammates,
your family members, who hold clear A bulletin is public
for a reason, writes the Security minister. Urge anyone who
could be a potential target to be on guard for
signs of online targeting. Bottom line is this the five
eyes denied issue join public warnings lightly. The fact that
they did means the threat environment is escalated to the
point where silence is no longer an option. China's military
intelligence is running a campaign to turn clear personnel and
national security professionals into unwinning intelligence assets. So know the threat,
trust your gut, report what you see.