US Officials Laid Off By Trump And Musk Being Targeted By Chinese Firms?

Photo:@AFLCIO

India-West News Desk

WASHINGTON, DC – A clandestine network of companies linked to a Chinese tech firm has been attempting to recruit recently laid-off U.S. government employees, according to job postings and an analyst who uncovered the scheme, Reuters reported.

Max Lesser, a senior analyst on emerging threats at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Reuters that some of the firms placing recruitment ads are part of a broader network of “fake consulting and headhunting firms targeting former government employees and AI researchers.”

Little is publicly known about the four consultancies and recruitment firms allegedly involved in the network. However, they shared overlapping websites, were hosted on the same server, or exhibited other digital links, Reuters noted, citing Lesser’s research.

These companies’ websites were hosted at the same IP address as Smiao Intelligence, an internet services company whose website went offline during Reuters’ investigation. Attempts by the news agency to track down the firms encountered numerous dead ends, including disconnected phone numbers, fake addresses, and deleted job postings.

Lesser said the campaign follows “well-established” tactics used in prior Chinese intelligence operations. “This network is significant because it seeks to exploit the financial vulnerabilities of former federal employees affected by mass layoffs,” he said.

Intelligence analysts told Reuters that the operation appeared to be a textbook example of how foreign-linked entities attempt to extract intelligence from dismissed government staff.