A top U.S. intelligence official accused Chinese agencies of using LinkedIn to recruit Americans privy to government secrets.
The Chinese are using fake LinkedIn accounts to carry out the “super aggresive” spy campaign, William Evaniana, the U.S. counter-intelligence chief, told Reuters in an interview.
Evanina said U.S. law enforcement has advised LinkedIn, which is owned by Microsoft, to shut down the accounts. The effort by China includes thousands of LinkedIn members, according to Reuters.
But Evanina, who runs the U.S. National Counter-Intelligence and Security Center, declined to share how many Americans have been in contact with the fake accounts or if China successfully recruited anyone.
“I recently saw that Twitter is cancelling, I don’t know, millions of fake accounts, and our request would be maybe LinkedIn could go ahead and be part of that,” Evanina told Reuters.
Last month, LinkedIn said it took down fewer than 40 fake accounts.
