By Denis Korkodinov
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, international espionage gains an additional incentive for development. Many employers, under the influence of the economic consequences of COVID-19, are forced to dismiss their employees who, in a stressful state, are trying to find new opportunities through Internet. This activity is used by the intelligence services of a number of states in order to recruit in their ranks citizens who have lost their jobs.
Of particular value to foreign intelligence are people who have a great influence in the media space and possess confidential information primarily of a military and political nature. Social networks, where people try to share their life problems and fears, become fertile ground for the recruitment process.
At a time when mass protests because of the coronavirus pandemic in many countries are banned, for many people the only way to express their point of view is the Internet. Millions of comments addressed to officials are forcing states to respond to them. The special services of a number of countries are beginning to show an increased interest in the information space, which regularly monitor people’s moods, trying to use them for espionage.
In particular, the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States, as well as the Israeli Mossad, amid the spread of coronavirus, increased the assets of its specialists by recruiting Facebook and Twitter users.
It is worth noting that due to the economic consequences of COVID-19 on the Internet, people have become less restrained in expressing radical points of view and publishing dirt on their opponents. Moreover, among active Internet users, not only low-skilled personnel, as a rule who do not have access to classified information, but also influential politicians, officials, and representatives of the national armed forces are noted.
These sources of information are of great value to intelligence services, since any crisis manifestations, especially on a global scale, create an urgent need for information that could affect the process of making certain government decisions.
Moreover, now the Internet is literally replete with secret information that, otherwise, would never have been published. By virtue of this, the intelligence services do not even have to work hard to gain access to information of interest to them and recruit people. Particularly active in this regard are Russian, Chinese, American and Israeli intelligence.
Currently, Facebook and Twitter are over saturated with intelligence agents. The main purpose of these social networks is to, firstly, facilitate the monitoring of public sentiment and, secondly, establish contact with a potential “object of influence”. And since “Facebook” and “Twitter” allow you to quickly get information about a person from anywhere in the world, interest in these platforms from the intelligence services is extremely relevant.
On the pages of their accounts, most users share mainly their attitude to events and political processes and neglect safety measures when communicating with strangers. Quite often, people do not hesitate to provide secret information that is in the field of competencies.
Representatives of intelligence, acting as recruiters, say they would like to help people improve their financial situation in the coronavirus time. It is noted that the amount of funding will be determined based on the quality of the information provided and the nature of the services provided. Such an offer seems very tempting for most Internet users who are deprived of work due to a pandemic.
Information is usually collected remotely using popular instant messengers. Receiving a cash reward will also not be difficult if a person knows how to use the non-contact method of financial settlement. Moreover, many remittances are difficult to track at the national level.
In this case, American and Israeli intelligence are very impatient, immediately requesting from the recruiting facilities a huge amount of information that must be provided in an extremely short period of time. Russian intelligence, and special services of several countries of the Caucasus and the Middle East, are more patient and prefer to observe target persons for several years before establishing contact with them and guaranteeing financing.
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