Report: China Using LinkedIn as Spy Tool

By Jenn Gidman

December 12, 2017

German officials may want to offer some of their LinkedIn contacts endorsements for "espionage" and "subterfuge." 

Per Reuters, the country's BfV intelligence service has revealed that Chinese intelligence operatives are setting up fake social-media accounts and attempting to connect with senior diplomats and politicians not only from Germany, but from a bunch of European countries. 

The nine-month probe found that the fraudulent accounts, in which operatives posed as headhunters or academic professionals, reached out to at least 10,000 German citizens on LinkedIn in an attempt to find out about everything from their hobbies to which way they leaned politically. The New York Times reports the Chinese spies would dangle free trips to China and meetings with big-name clients to their newfound online acquaintances to try to get them to spill info.

Read the full story on Newser.com

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