U.S. counterintelligence warns about an increase in covert espionage cases for technological purposes
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In a new demonstration of the advance of hybrid espionage against the West, China and Russia have deployed a network of seductive women to win over Silicon Valley executives and gain access to sensitive technological secrets, according to an investigation by the Times of London.
The operation, informally dubbed by analysts as a "sex war," consists of sending undercover agents trained in manipulation, personal connections, and seduction, with the goal of establishing romantic or marital relationships with key industry figures. Some of them have even had children with their victims, thus consolidating a permanent and difficult-to-detect bond.
Los empresarios tecnológicos son el objetivo.
James Mulvenon, director of intelligence at the consulting firm Pamir Consulting, told the British newspaper that he has received numerous contact requests on LinkedIn from young Chinese women with fake profiles. "There seems to have been a notable increase in recent months," he warned, alerting about the sophistication of these operations.
A former U.S. counterintelligence official, now an advisor to startups, recounted the case of a Russian model turned cryptocurrency expert, who married an American aerospace engineer without him suspecting her true intentions. "Marrying a target and maintaining a lifelong espionage operation is not something exceptional; it's more common than people think," he stated.
Reports indicate that the intelligence services of Beijing and Moscow are using not only physical seduction, but also social networks, startup competitions, and venture capital investments to insert themselves into the heart of the U.S. technology ecosystem. The maneuver is part of a "total war" strategy against the economic and digital power of the United States.
Mulvenon described these tactics as an "asymmetric vulnerability," since, according to him, U.S. legislation and culture prohibit its own services from replicating similar methods. "They have an advantage because we, by law and ethics, don't do that," he explained.
The U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee has already warned that China carried out more than 60 espionage operations within the country in the last four years, although experts estimate that the real number is considerably higher. In the case of Tesla alone, a Chinese engineer was convicted for attempting to sell the automaker's trade secrets to companies of the communist regime.
Rostro femenino.
Washington estimates that intellectual property theft linked to China costs up to 600 billion dollars a year, an economic loss equivalent to the GDP of entire nations.
Meanwhile, Beijing denies the accusations and claims that it "actively protects intellectual property rights," the facts reveal a disturbing pattern: Chinese espionage and Russian espionage are no longer waged in secret laboratories or with undercover agents, but on social networks, in innovation offices, and even in the victims' private lives.
