Highlight
- Hackers with suspected links to Chinese intelligence are advertising new recruits
- Beijing is persuading job seekers to translate confidential stolen papers
- About 140 potential translators have been targeted for this task.
China is actively recruiting university students to conduct espionage operations against Western targets. According to the description, Hainan Jiandun, a Chinese technology company, is seeking students as English-language translators, even though US law enforcement agencies accuse Beijing of such companies as “fronts” for espionage operations against Western targets. charged with setting up.
Hackers with suspected links to China’s intelligence agencies are still advertising new recruits to work on cyber espionage, even though the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has convicted the perpetrators of attempting to disrupt their activities .
In another covert move by China, Beijing is luring job-seekers into translating confidential stolen papers collected from various government agencies as well as conducting state-sponsored spying on Western targets.
In hiring these Chinese university students, the country is hiding information about the actual duties they will have to perform after they are hired, The Hong Kong Post reported.
The students are prompted to work for a top-secret technology business, where they are identifying potential Western targets for espionage and interpreting stolen papers as part of Beijing’s vast intelligence network. Huh.
About 140 potential translators, most of them recent graduates who have studied English at public colleges in Hainan, Sichuan and Xian, are targeted for this job.
In the Chinese province of Hainan, people applied for job postings for a business called Hainan Xiandun. In a shocking revelation, translation tests on confidential papers collected from US government agencies were part of the application process. Johns Hopkins University also had instructions to conduct research on people who were a prime target for spy gatherings.
According to a 2021 US federal indictment, Hainan Jiandun, a Chinese firm, served as a front for the Chinese hacking organization APT40. Western intelligence services previously reported that APT40 has been sent by China’s Ministry of State Security to infiltrate colleges, businesses and government organizations across the US, Canada, Europe and the Middle East.
To quell the malice, last July, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the US Bureau of Investigation, prompted three state security officials in Hainan province to halt operations in Hainan Jiandun. These operations have alleged roles in creating a business as a front for state-backed espionage.
These are state security officials Ding Xiaoyang, Cheng Qingmin and Zhu Yunmin. Another person involved in the indictment is believed to be Wu Shurong, a hacker who assisted with staff management in Hainan Xiandun.
It has become a part of Chinese strategy where graduate students are tempted to pursue a career in espionage. Not only that, but the websites of Chinese universities also posted job advertisements for translators without providing much information about the nature of the work.
These developments and moves by Chinese universities will have long-term effects as these students may find it challenging to live and work in Western countries, which is a major incentive for many students to study foreign languages.
Their job applications provide light on APT 40’s strategies, which include targeting marine, biomedical and robotics research institutions as part of a larger initiative to learn and gain personal know-how about Western industrial strategy.
A large workforce of English-speakers who can help identify hacking targets, cyber experts who can access enemy networks, and intelligence officers who can analyze stolen data is the reason for such a massive breach. are necessary for.
Job seekers were instructed to download “Software to Get Around the Great Firewall” in the instruction manual. It cautions that the research would include visiting blocked websites, such as Facebook, that call for the use of VPNs, or programs that hide a user’s location, in order to gain access.
Hainan Jiandun had a close association with Hainan University and advertised job openings on the university’s recruitment websites.
The first floor of the university library, which also houses the student computer area, was the place of company registration.
(with inputs from ANI)
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