Chinese Ministry of State Security

China's Ministry of State Security (MSS) disclosed three espionage cases involving outsourced service personnel on Friday, warning of potential risks. In one case, a cleaner employed by an outsourced provider proactively contacted foreign intelligence agencies, resulting in the leakage of classified information and posing a threat to national security, according to the MSS.

Some outsourced personnel, due to their work responsibilities, may have access to a working area or participate in specialized tasks, creating opportunities to have access to national secrets. Failure to enforce strict confidentiality measures could result in leaks, according to an article published on MSS' official WeChat account on Friday.

A key secret-related unit outsourced its office building management to a property service company without necessary security oversight. The cleaning staff member surnamed Duan employed by the property service company, in order to satisfy personal desires, actively contacted foreign espionage intelligence agencies. Under the spies' instructions, Duan stole and secretly photographed documents, providing one classified-level and two confidential-level state secrets, along with six other intelligence items, to the foreign intelligence agencies. This resulted in a significant leak of confidential information, posing a serious threat to national security, according to the MSS.

In another case, authorities found that a netizen was selling five classified documents on a document-sharing website. Upon investigation, it was found that the company involved did not possess the qualifications for the digitization of classified archives. But the company deceived multiple government agencies' archive management departments and contracted to handle the digitization of archive materials, according to the MSS. 

An employee from the company, surnamed Jiang, stole and copied dozens of classified documents from the archives and brought them home. In pursuit of personal gain, Jiang then posted several of these documents online for sale, leaking state secrets, said the MSS.

According to the MSS, overseas espionage intelligence agencies are highly concerned about key security sector enterprises and attempt to continuously attack these companies through phishing, network scanning, and other methods. They specifically target operations and maintenance personnel who have system management privileges, posing a threat to national security. 

Xiao Li is an operations and maintenance staff member at an e-mail system manufacturer, who has remote management and system administrator account privileges and is responsible for providing technical support for clients' e-mail systems, said the MSS. 

Xiao Li often records client account passwords and system administrator passwords on a personal computer for convenience. The overseas espionage intelligence agencies targeted Xiao Li and launched a cyberattack on Xiao Li's computer, stealing the clients' account password information stored on it. They then used the information to conduct espionage on the e-mail systems of more than 1,000 key departments through network pivots, obtaining a large amount of internal e-mail data from these critical departments, according to the MSS.

The MSS warned that potential leaks in service outsourcing must not be overlooked. Confidential agencies and institutions must maintain constant vigilance, strengthen management and preventive measures to ensure the security of state secrets.

Global Times