BEIJING – China’s spy agency warned public workers on Thursday to curb their “desire to show off” state secrets on social media.
Beijing has ramped up espionage warnings in recent years as ties with the United States and other Western nations have cooled.
Its Ministry of State Security said this month that foreign spooks were targeting public officials with tantalizing “honey traps” and blackmail to infiltrate the country and steal sensitive information.
In another admonition on Thursday, the ministry turned its focus to newbie workers who, in its view, might be spending a little too much time online.
It cited the example of a young man surnamed Jiang, a “newly employed cadre at a certain agency” who received a confidential document during a regular work meeting.
“Out of a desire to show off, he took a photo of the front page and posted it on his WeChat Moments, causing a leak,” the MSS said, referring to the social media app’s news feed.
It added that Jiang faced punishment from the ruling Communist Party and “administrative discipline” for his actions.
In a similar case, a greenhorn worker surnamed Tian “casually” shared his progress on a confidential project with a colleague, whose family overheard the conversation and posted about it online.
Another “novice” mistake involved a scientific worker surnamed Li, who lazily uploaded sensitive data to an artificial intelligence app to generate a research report, causing a leak.
“New employees in confidential units… must strictly distinguish between work and life boundaries, strictly follow confidentiality agreements while socializing and entertaining, and strictly control their ‘desire to show off’ and ‘vanity’,” the MSS said.
