Germany exposes the danger of Chinese cyber espionage

Germany's intelligence agency has warned that China is using social media to illegally exploit information from German officials and citizens, and is skeptical that China wants to interfere in German politics.

Illustration: SLC

Germany's Federal Domestic Intelligence Service (BfV) on December 10 published a list of fake social media accounts, believed to have been created by Chinese intelligence agencies to collect information about German officials and politicians.

The report warned these individuals about the risk of losing important and valuable information through social media.

“Chinese intelligence appears to be very active on social networks such as LinkedIn and is attempting to seek intelligence through this channel, including collecting data on users' habits, interests, and political leanings,” the report said.

During the nine-month study, the BfV said it estimated that more than 10,000 Germans were believed to have been contacted and targeted by Chinese intelligence under the guise of consultants, recruiters or researchers, mainly via the social network LinkedIn. The BfV said the number could be increasing.

The accounts featured in the BfV report all have in common the use of “grandiose” titles and photos that show the flashy, luxurious lifestyles of the impersonators. However, the information provided by the subjects is inaccurate. For example, the account of subject Laeticia Chen, who claims to be the director of the China Center for International Politics and Economics, uses photos from fashion brands as her profile picture.

The study found that some Germans even had links to “high-ranking politicians and diplomats” from several European countries. This is completely untrue and the BfV warned Germans to be careful with their social media connections.

Germany’s warning continues to raise concerns from US and Western intelligence about China’s information-gathering plans. The US has previously expressed concern over suspicions that China appears to be recruiting US citizens to act as spies.

According to Dan Tri