Former CIA officer says US companies are underestimating China intelligence risks

Former CIA officer says US companies are underestimating China intelligence risks US officials have long warned that Chinese intelligence services target American companies, especially those with valuable technology, and that businesses need to do more to protect themselves."It takes a disaster for people to realize that a little bit of training could have mitigated the risk," said Michele Rigby Assad, a former undercover CIA intelligence officer who now trains companies to recognize foreign intelligence threats.Assad served in the CIA from 2002 to 2012, including overseas assignments in counterterrorism and counterintelligence. She now works as a corporate counterintelligence trainer and international-security consultant, including on Chinese intelligence operations in Florida.Her warning comes as Nvidia's board investigates whether CEO Jensen Huang was the target of a foreign intelligence effort — a case unfolding amid longstanding FBI warnings about China's espionage threat to US companies and technology.In 2020, then-FBI Director Christopher Wray said the bureau was opening a new China-related counterintelligence case about every 10 hours, and that nearly half of its roughly 5,000 active counterintelligence cases were China-related.More recently, the FBI said it had helped facilitate 62 removals of foreign intelligence threats through its China program this year.That broader threat is the context for the questions now facing Nvidia.Megaspeed, an Nvidia customer, has separately faced scrutiny over whether it helped Chinese customers access advanced chips restricted by US export controls. Nvidia said it has no reason to believe national security or company secrets were compromised, and said it found no evidence Megaspeed illegally transferred its products.Assad told Business Insider in September that there are "far more Chinese operations going on against us in the United States" than there are FBI agents to pursue them. In a Tuesday follow-up, Assad said that leaders of strategically important companies may underestimate the possibility that personal relationships can be exploited for intelligence purposes. Given Nvidia's central role in the US-China competition over AI, she said, reports that Huang may have been targeted did not surprise her.Assad did not assess the evidence in Nvidia's investigation or say what Huang knew about the relationship. Nvidia has not said Huang shared company information or that Alice Huang was involved in a foreign intelligence operation. China has denied the espionage allegations.What companies should take from the Nvidia caseAssad said companies should assume that valuable technology can attract foreign interest."If you have products that are of interest to the Chinese and you've spent millions or billions of dollars developing that product, you are a target," she said. "It's so much easier for the Chinese to steal those secrets, product designs, etc. than it is to spend billions of dollars trying to engineer what you've already developed."She added that the business community needs to take counterintelligence risks more seriously, particularly companies with technology, products, or data that may be valuable to foreign governments."Counterintelligence training for the private sector should be a priority, so that people understand the risk and know what an intelligence operation looks like in real life," Assad said.She added that companies need to "train ourselves out of the optimism bias that causes us to put on rose-colored glasses and not see what's happening in front of our faces."Federal counterintelligence officials have issued similar warnings to businesses. The FBI says counterintelligence risks often resemble ordinary business interactions, such as a "too perfect" investor, recruiter, or customer request, a new hire seeking unusual access, or a friendly contact who gradually asks for more information.How people can become sourcesAssad said recruitment can begin with something as ordinary as an invitation to speak at a conference."Oftentimes experts are invited to speak or give a presentation at a conference in China," she said. "Then, Chinese contacts who develop a friendship with you, will start asking you for reports/insights that they pay you for."Those contacts can continue requesting additional reports and more sensitive information, she said."People tend to get caught up in the ease with which they get paid for work that feels natural or with minimal risk," Assad said. "They identify your vulnerabilities, and they play on those weaknesses."Assad said those vulnerabilities can determine whether an intelligence service uses financial incentives or "insert a honeytrap into your social circle if you're lonely, feel unappreciated, etc.""The use of honeypots in intelligence is a tale as old as time," she said.A gap in trainingAssad said companies in strategically important industries generally do not receive enough training on foreign intelligence risks.She pointed to Florida's Space Coast, which is working on sensitive technology and development projects.Assad said she and her husband once saw people in a Cocoa Beach bar whom they believed were Chinese operatives "working the room," using tactics she recognized from her own intelligence work overseas. Business Insider has not independently verified that observation."We have engineers and people involved in secret developmental efforts that cost billions of dollars for our companies," Assad said. "And the Chinese have operatives crawling up and down."That concern is consistent with a 2023 federal advisory reported by MarketWatch, which warned that foreign intelligence entities were seeking sensitive technology and data from commercial space companies, including SpaceX and Blue Origin.Assad said she has offered free counterintelligence training to companies and business networks in the region but has not been taken up on the offer. Read next Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Jessica Orwig is a senior editor at Business Insider, where she collaborates with reporters, editors, and producers across teams to shape, write, edit, and publish stories that connect with a global audience. While her roots are in science and technology journalism, her work today spans business, careers, culture, and the big ideas shaping the future.She earned her Master’s in Science & Technology Journalism from Texas A&M University and holds a Bachelor’s in Astronomy & Physics from The Ohio State University. Throughout her career, she’s helped lead coverage on everything from space exploration and climate change to innovation, the future of work, and evolving cultural trends.Career HighlightsLed coverage on scientific milestones, including:Blue Origin's inaugural New Glenn launchIntuitive Machine's groundbreaking moon landing for the USSpaceX’s Polaris Dawn historic spaceflight NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Historic FlybyJapan’s SLIM lunar landingThe first image of a black holeIndia’s historic Moon landingSpaceX’s inaugural Starship-Super Heavy launchDiscovery of gravitational wavesNASA’s Pluto flybyReported on breaking news and scientific discoveries, including:Microplastics in the human brainPeregrine Mission One’s failed flightThe Palisades firesSpaceX Starship explosionsDark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument’s 3D map of the universe and what it revealsA local cosmic void that shouldn’t existThe Boeing Starliner missionMexico City’s water crisisEarth’s mysterious inner core behaviorPopular stories she’s edited on science and health:What it will take to modernize the American grid and usher in the clean-energy revolutionI study toxic microplastics. Here's how I protect myself and my kids at home.A mega-earthquake could strike the Pacific Northwest any day — and we're not preparedFlying is about to become even more miserableWhy the US can’t send humans to MarsThe world's most popular banana faces extinction but scientists' new creation could help save itScientists finally think they know where the most dangerous part of this US earthquake zone is and it's bad news for WashingtonOne of Mt. Everest's deadliest passages is growing even more treacherousJupiter's moon Europa generates enough oxygen to keep a million people alive for a day, NASA saysPopular stories she’s written and/or edited on careers, culture, life, and business:He weighed over 400 pounds as an FBI undercover agent — and it became his best disguiseA former FBI Special Agent who infiltrated the Italian Mafia, Mexican cartels, and Russian and Asian organized crime groups says he fears 1 group above the restHe was diagnosed with colon cancer at 31 in prison, and his survival odds weren't great. Now 59, he says spiraling is pointless.I stopped bartending full-time to sell ice. My company now makes nearly $3 million a year, catering to Michelin-starred restaurants in New York City.My dad ran a food cart and called it the 'worst business.' I decided to follow in his footsteps anyway.I moved from the US to Rome for a slower pace of life, but after 7 years I've realized I'll never fully adjust to some Italian waysAfter losing too many bidding wars for a home in LA, I bought a 5-bedroom house in the suburbs. I quickly realized it was a mistake.We bought our dream home in Colorado, but wildfires and home insurance trends had us selling 1.5 years laterA woman who retired early at 58 thought she was ready with over $500,000 in savings. A few years later, it was gone.I've made over $40,000 selling plush dolls I scoop from claw machines. Here's how I learned to beat the game and turn my hobby into a profitable side hustle.A 17-year-old designed a cheaper, more efficient drone. The Department of Defense just awarded him $23,000 for it.Yukon gold miners are unearthing mummified ancient creatures and truckloads of fossils from the Ice Age. Take a look.Archaeologists are finding mysterious ancient objects on Norway's melting glaciers. Take a look.I'm an American mom in Italy. When I couldn't help my daughter with her homework, I realized how isolated I felt. Kevin is a video producer at Business Insider. His work has taken him from the United Nations to the world of bacon. He graduated from CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. China Cybersecurity Defense More