Chinese Spies Are Trying To Reach UK Lawmakers Via LinkedIn, MI5 Warns

MI5 has warned U.K. lawmakers that Chinese intelligence operatives are using LinkedIn and recruitment fronts to target them for information gathering and long-term cultivation. PBS reports: Writing to lawmakers, House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle said a new MI5 "espionage alert" warned that Chinese nationals were "using LinkedIn profiles to conduct outreach at scale" on behalf of the Chinese Ministry of State Security. "Their aim is to collect information and lay the groundwork for long-term relationships, using professional networking sites, recruitment agents and consultants acting on their behalf," he said. MI5 issued the alert because the activity was "targeted and widespread," he added.

The MI5 alert cited LinkedIn profiles of two women, Amanda Qiu and Shirly Shen, and said other similar recruiters' profiles were acting as fronts for espionage. Home Office Minister Dan Jarvis said that apart from parliamentary staff, others including economists, think tank consultants and government officials have been similarly targeted. Jarvis said the government is rolling out a series of measures to tackle the risk, including investing 170 million pounds ($224 million) to renew encrypted technology used by civil servants to safeguard sensitive work. Opposition parties say authorities are not doing enough and are too wary of jeopardizing trade ties with China.

Somehow

[liqu1d]

I would not be surprised if this âoeencrypted technologyâ isnâ(TM)t already compromised. We have a very poor track record with our secure systems.

slow news day

[Anonymous Coward]

Chinese Spies Are Trying To Reach Lawmakers Via LinkedIn [google.com]
Change the date to before 2025 and there are pages of hits.
May 2024 UK
Jan 2022 UK
Mar 2020 UK
Dec 2019 Germany
Aug 2018 America
Oct 2018 France
Just on the first page

Re:

[abulafia]

Somewhere, in a cramped 4th floor walkup apartment in Queens, the last remaining editorial intern is feeding an LLM an editorial calendar of which articles to rewrite on what schedule.

Porn

[registrations_suck]

They would probably better off trying to reach the lawmakers using porn sites.

Re:

[Tablizer]

LoveYouLongTime.UK

Re:

[newcastlejon]

Do they make good tractors in China? [theguardian.com]

Re:

[registrations_suck]

I dunno.

Can they pull a train?

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

Our government seems to mostly react to Facebook posts these days. I'm sure China, Russia, and others are all busy spamming Facebook in order to destabilize us.

Re:

[nightflameauto]

Our government seems to mostly react to Facebook posts these days. I'm sure China, Russia, and others are all busy spamming Facebook in order to destabilize us.

Or sitting back, having a beer, and laughing while we destabilize ourselves.

Re:Porn

[coofercat]

Honestly, if they can reach our politicians by Linkedin, then good on 'em, maybe they should publish a how-to guide?

Our politicians are probably more remote from us than ever before. I would say that recently they have maybe been listening a bit more on some subjects than their predecessors, but it's certain;y not a universal improvement - if it's even real at all.

If you want to reach out "law makers", then your best bet is to infiltrate our Whitehall institutions, HMRC and the Treasury being the most influential. After that, maybe the OBR, ONS etc, maybe DWP. Seemingly "critical thinking" isn't something we require of our politicians any more, so they seem to swallow anything the "departments" tell them.

Failing that, get Reform to say something on the subject, and you'll have a policy shift from just about everyone within a week.

Old news, but still

[dskoll]

I know this is old news. However, IMO anyone who gets a government job should be forced to either delete their LinkedIn account, or to suspend it and not use LinkedIn while they are employed. Suspending an account makes it invisible on LinkedIn unless you log in again.

Same for all social media accounts that can be connected to a real person.

Re:

[newcastlejon]

However, IMO anyone who gets a government job should be forced to either delete their LinkedIn account,

I never had a LinkedIn account, but they made one for me anyway.

Re:

[Mr Reaney]

Have you been kicked in the head by a horse? The Church of England never managed that over 500 years with the full coercive power of the state, and you think the nonsense about Islam in the UK is in any way realistic?