Secretive Chinese network tries to lure fired US federal workers research shows

A network of companies operated by a secretive Chinese tech firm has been trying to recruit recently laid-off US government workers, according to job advertisements and a researcher who uncovered the campaign.

Mr Max Lesser, a senior analyst on emerging threats with the Washington-based think-tank Foundation for Defence of Democracies, said some companies placing recruitment ads were “part of a broader network of fake consulting and headhunting firms targeting former government employees and AI researchers”.

Little information is publicly available on the four consultancies and recruitment companies allegedly involved in the network, which in some cases shared overlapping websites, were hosted on the same server, or had other digital links, according to Reuters’ reporting and Mr Lesser’s research.

The four companies’ websites are hosted at the same internet protocol address alongside Smiao Intelligence, an internet services company whose website became unavailable during Reuters’ reporting. Reuters could not determine the nature of the relationship between Smiao Intelligence and the four companies.

The news agency’s attempts to track down the four companies and Smiao Intelligence ran into numerous dead-ends including unanswered phone calls, phone numbers that no longer work, fake addresses, addresses that lead to empty fields, unanswered e-mails and deleted job listings from online professional platform LinkedIn.

Mr Lesser, who uncovered the network and shared his research with Reuters ahead of publication, said the campaign follows “well-established” techniques used by previous Chinese intelligence operations.

“What makes this activity significant,” he said, “is that the network seeks to exploit the financial vulnerabilities of former federal workers affected by recent mass layoffs.”

Reuters could not determine if the companies are linked to the Chinese government or whether any former federal workers were recruited. Asked about the research, three intelligence analysts told Reuters the network appeared to be a prime example of how foreign-linked