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Speaker 1: We'll come back everybody. Today, we're looking at the LinkedIn trap.

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You've probably heard some stories about it, but it's not

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a hypothetical threat. This is not some analysts somewhere connecting

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dots on a whiteboard, five of the most powerful intel

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agencies on the planet stepping out of the shadows together

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and saying this is happening. On June third, twenty twenty six,

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To five Eyes Alliance released a joint security bulletin titled

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Safeguarding are Secrets. Five nations, five domestic spy agencies, all

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five together at the same time. So this is a

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serious problem. They're telling it because they need you to know.

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So what are you talking about? Anyway? China's military intelligence

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services are using an increasingly wide array of professional networking

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sites and online job platforms to target Five Eyes, government

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and military personnel, and anyone with access to classified or

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privileged information. The platforms include LinkedIn, Indeed and upwork places

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where you go to find a job, a better opportunity life,

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the place where a message in your inbox feels professional, legitimate.

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Here's where the operation actually works. Intelligence operators pose as

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private consulting firms think tanks or recruitment agencies to attract

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foreign policy experts, defense analysts, military personnel. They build out profiles,

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they create fake companies that look real. They post job listings,

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They reach out to you by name, and they have

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done their homework. They know where you work, where your

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clearest level is, what your specialty is. They ask at first,

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is never anything that sounds like espionage. They want to

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report an analysis, a brief in some policy area, something

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that sounds like consulting work, something that sounds like a

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side hustle. Recruits are often offered payments ranging from hundreds

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of thousands of dollars for reports through research assignments, but

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some compensation reportedly made through cryptocurrency. And then it escalates.

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Once you've taken the money, you've written that first report,

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you're in and you may not even realize. As they

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get the request and more specific the pressure builds. The

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target is not just what you know today, it is access.

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Think about who they are going after. The types of

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workers who may be targeted include security clearance holders, military personnel, professors,

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policy advisors, journalists. And here's the part that is not

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Goet talked about enough. This is not a new playbook

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China has been running this version for years. What is

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the need? What is new is the scale. The bulletin

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describes a tactic as a scaled, methodical, methodical approach to

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identifying sources through seemingly legitimate unemployment opportunities. The Five Eyes

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are not sounding this alarm because they caught a couple

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of amateur spies. They're sounding it because the operation has

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produced results. The warning stated that such activities have in

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some cases resulted in criminal prosecutions, job terminations, and the

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loss of security clearances among individuals in five by countries.

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And here's what I fought. I've said directly, certain types

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of data can place the lives of frontline military or

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other personnel at risk and can weaken economic prosperity. They're

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not just talking about firing you, and they're talking about prison.

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So what do you actually do with this information? Well,

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knowing is the first thing. Verify everything as the second.

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If someone reaches out to you on LinkedIn offering consulting

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work related to your professional background, especially anything touching government

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or defense or policy, assume nothing is what it appears

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to be. Look at the company. Call the company, not

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the number they give you. Find it independently. If it

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does not check out, disengage next reporting to the five eyes,

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the FBI, five csis ASIO, and ZSIS. They all have

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mechanisms for reporting suspicious contact. Use them. One report might

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connect the dot that breaks the open an entire network.

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Talk to the people around you, your colleagues, your teammates,

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your family members, who hold clear A bulletin is public

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for a reason, writes the Security minister. Urge anyone who

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could be a potential target to be on guard for

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signs of online targeting. Bottom line is this the five

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eyes denied issue join public warnings lightly. The fact that

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they did means the threat environment is escalated to the

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point where silence is no longer an option. China's military

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intelligence is running a campaign to turn clear personnel and

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national security professionals into unwinning intelligence assets. So know the threat,

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trust your gut, report what you see.