LinkedIn: Not Just for Job Seekers and Attention Junkies
January 8, 2018
Last year I spotted this write up: “Spies Are Watching … on LinkedIn.” My first reaction was, “This is news?” I set the item aside, and I watched my newsfeeds to see if the story had “legs.” It did not. I thought I would document the existence of the write up and invite you, gentle reader, to figure out if this is old news, new news, or just flim flam news.
The main point is that an outfit known as BfV, shorthand for Bundesamt für Verfassungsschut) monitors LinkedIn for espionage actors. The main point of the write up strike me as:
Chinese intelligence has used LinkedIn to target at least 10,000 Germans, possibly to recruit them as informants.
I wonder if other intelligence agencies monitor LinkedIn. I suppose that is a possibility.
The write up include these faked profiles:
“Rachel Li”, identified as a “headhunter” at “RiseHR”
“Alex Li”, a “Project Manager at Center for Sino-Europe Development Studies”
“Laeticia Chen”, a manager at the “China Center of International Politics and Economy” whose attractive photo was reportedly swiped from an online fashion catalog, according to a BfV official
I have not spotted any recent information about the number of faked profiles on LinkedIn. My hunch is that most of the résumés on the service might qualify as faked, but that’s just my supposition.
With Microsoft’s ownership of LinkedIn making small, yet meaningful, changes in the service, I wonder how these “fake” spy-related profiles and discussions, if any, will be filtered.
Next time you accept a “friend” on LinkedIn, will you ask yourself, “Is this fine person a spy?”
Stephen E Arnold, January 8, 2018
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