International Law

MI5: PLA and PSB "Gifts" to Businessmen Bugged

Commercial espionage among nations should not come as a surprise to anyone involved competitive businesses. I am a proponent of the idea that American intelligence should practice it far more than we already do, which is either so brilliantly executed as to stay below the radar of public view or relatively inconsequential.

Not so Chinese commercial espionage, which is far from a new story. I distinctly remember in the early 1990s the Taiwanese visitor to a certain bearing manufacturing in the United States, discovered wearing shoes with magnetized metal soles to catch iron filings during a factory tour.

But Chinese commercial espionage is "evidently" well-funded and coordinated. An MI5 report, leaked to the Sunday Times, contains details of interest, including this:

A leaked MI5 document says that undercover intelligence officers from the People?s Liberation Army and the Ministry of Public Security have also approached UK businessmen at trade fairs and exhibitions with the offer of ?gifts? and ?lavish hospitality?.

The gifts ? cameras and memory sticks ? have been found to contain electronic Trojan bugs which provide the Chinese with remote access to users? computers.

Granted, given the prevalence of virus activity and the near absence of antivirus applications in use in China, it is always possible that rogue applications find their way onto "gifts." It has also been rumored -- and I believe unproven, correct me if I'm wrong -- that applications to ease ingress by hackers have been installed unto computer hardware at certain Chinese factories.

Need I say it? if you are senior executive or assistant to such an officer in a sensitive industry or multinational, beware of strangers -- especially PLA or PSB people -- bringing gifts.

Full post as published by Asia Business Intelligence on February 01, 2010 (boomark / email).