When the first emails arrived, they were easily dismissed as spam. But as strangers continued to boast about their defence and security credentials, they became impossible to ignore. From mid-2025, a small Australian consultancy firm called Horizzen started receiving emails and strange calls from people applying for vague jobs in the United States. It would have been an ambitious global expansion for the Brisbane-based firm, which only had a few domestic clients. Except, it wasn’t hiring. Without its knowledge, a fake consultancy firm impersonating Horizzen had been launched online. It…
Tag: Espionage
Border Force officer and Hong Kong trade official jailed for spying for China
A UK Border Force officer and a Hong Kong trade official based in London have been jailed for spying for China in the first such conviction in British criminal history. Peter Wai, who conducted “shadow policing” operations on Chinese dissidents in the UK, was sentenced to 10 years, while his handler, Bill Yuen, received an eight-year term. After a two-month trial at the Old Bailey, the pair were convicted under the National Security Act of assisting a foreign intelligence service. Wai, 41, a Border Force officer at Heathrow airport who…
‘Spy turtles’ and ‘spy fish’ being used to monitor Chinese waters, Beijing claims
China’s ministry of state security has claimed that foreign espionage and intelligence agencies are using innovative new methods to monitor the country’s waters, including deploying “spy” animals fitted with sensors. In a post on the Chinese platform WeChat on Friday, the ministry warned that an “invisible secret war” was quietly playing out in the seas around China as foreign agencies were collecting sensitive data “through a variety of new spying devices” to produce underwater maps that pose a “serious threat to our national security”. Among the espionage techniques being used,…
Chinese spies use LinkedIn to target UK officials and military staff
Chinese spies are targeting UK government and military staff on job websites including LinkedIn to try to get access to classified or sensitive information, MI5 has warned. A bulletin has been released by the Five Eyes powers – the UK, US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand – highlighting an “aggressive” online recruitment strategy where spies for Beijing military intelligence pose as workers acting on behalf of private businesses or thinktanks. They advertise for nonexistent jobs such as foreign policy or defence analysts, before pressuring candidates to provide “non-public” information, the…
Russia is targeting UK’s infrastructure and democracy, GCHQ head to say
Russia is relentlessly targeting Britain’s infrastructure and democracy while there is only a narrowing technological window to stay ahead of a fast-developing China, the head of the spy agency GCHQ will warn in a lecture on Wednesday. Anne Keast-Butler, giving an inaugural annual lecture, will say that the UK is caught in a “new era of radical uncertainty” and that “the risk of miscalculation” is as high as she has ever seen it as hacker attacks from the two states continue. The spy chief will particularly emphasise the wide-ranging threats…
A California mayor pleaded guilty to acting as an agent for China. Foreign policy experts aren’t surprised
Foreign policy experts say they are not surprised at China’s efforts to exert its influence over local US communities after the mayor of a southern California city resigned this week and said she would plead guilty to acting as an illegal foreign agent of Beijing. Eileen Wang, 58, agreed to plead guilty to a felony count related to the charge on Monday and could face up to 10 years in federal prison. According to a plea agreement filed by the justice department, Wang and an associate worked with the People’s…
Hong Kong dissident Nathan Law on China spies in UK: ‘We’re not surprised’
Nathan Law, an exiled leader of the Hong Kong student protest who lives with a £100,000 bounty on his head from the Chinese authorities, was not surprised to discover a spy ring had photographed him entering the Oxford Union for an evening debate in November 2023. The conviction at the Old Bailey of Chi Leung “Peter” Wai, 38, and Chung Biu “Bill” Yuen, 65, for assisting a foreign intelligence service, was a sobering first – no Chinese spies had been convicted in British criminal history before Thursday – but the…
Two men first in British history to be found guilty of spying for China
A UK Border Force officer and Hong Kong trade official based in London have been found guilty of spying for China and surveilling dissidents through a “shadow policing” operation. Chi Leung “Peter” Wai, 38, and Chung Biu Yuen, 65, also known as Bill, were found guilty at the Old Bailey of assisting a foreign intelligence service, making them the first people in British history to be convicted of spying for China. Wai, who worked for Border Force at Heathrow airport and volunteered as a City of London special constable, was…
Chinese hackers are using everyday devices to hack UK firms, warns watchdog
British businesses are being urged to step up their vigilance against a China-linked hacking ploy that uses everyday devices for espionage. The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and agencies in nine other countries have warned of persistent attempts by Beijing-backed groups to hack equipment such as wifi routers to launch cyber-attacks. Known as “covert networks” or “botnets”, they typically target vulnerable equipment – for instance devices that have not had a software update or are old – as a base for staging activities such as surveillance and data theft.…
Police search home of former Labour MP’s husband amid China spying investigation
The husband of former Labour MP Gloria De Piero has confirmed his home was searched on Wednesday as part of a police investigation into an alleged Chinese spying ring. James Robinson, a former aide to the ex-Labour deputy leader Tom Watson, issued a statement confirming the raid on the home he shares with his wife, but said he had not been detained or questioned by police. He said: “I can confirm that police officers visited my home yesterday with a search warrant. I understand their attendance was part of enquiries…