Five Eyes warns China is recruiting officials via fake job offers

The Five Eyes intelligence agencies (US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand) issued a joint bulletin, "Safeguarding Our Secrets," warning that Chinese military intelligence officers are posing as recruiters on sites like LinkedIn, Indeed, and Upwork. Fronting as think tanks, consultancies, or HR firms, they post fake jobs such as foreign-policy or defense-analyst roles, then use the interview process to pressure targets into handing over classified or non-public information. The agencies say current and former government, military, defense-contractor, research, and journalist personnel are all in scope, with extra focus on those tied to the Indo-Pacific. The goal is harvesting privileged military, political, and economic intelligence.

Check

Brief staff in sensitive government, defense, and research roles to scrutinize unsolicited recruiter and consulting approaches, and check whether anyone has shared non-public information during one.

Affected

Current and former Five Eyes government, military, defense-contractor, policy, research, and journalist personnel with access to classified or privileged information, especially those linked to the Indo-Pacific.

Fix

Verify recruiters and employers through official channels before engaging, never discuss sensitive work in interviews, and report suspected approaches to your security team or national agency.