Top US official warns of 'large uptick' in foreign spies targeting tech companies

The nation's main counterintelligence officer, Mike Casey, is informing of a "large uptick" successful overseas spies trying to secretly infiltrate tech companies successful nan United States truthful they tin bargain America's latest innovations.

According to Casey, America's ain system and nationalist information -- moreover populist itself -- are astatine stake, pinch China successful particular looking to usage stolen technologies to crush U.S. competitors, compression civilian liberties wrong China, and boost China's subject might.

"We're not perfect, but I don't want to unrecorded successful nan dystopian type of nan [People's Republic of China]," joked Casey, who arsenic head of nan U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center coordinates and guides nan nation's counterintelligence activities.

Casey said that complete nan past 2 years, arsenic U.S. companies began to heed warnings astir questionable investments from China, nan U.S. intelligence community has seen a spike successful China's usage of beforehand companies and different proxies to entree start-up companies and past bargain their caller technologies.

By Casey's ain description, astatine slightest immoderate of what drives his interest is classified U.S. intelligence, which presents a "huge challenge" for U.S. officials who want to seduce start-up executives pinch nary information clearance -- and small money -- to beryllium very observant successful choosing investors and partners.

That's why Casey's agency and nan FBI person spent overmuch of nan past twelvemonth not only trying to fig retired not really to person tech companies that nan threat is real, but besides really to connection suggestions for mitigating it.

According to Casey, nan FBI's section agency successful San Francisco, adjacent Silicon Valley, has been a leader connected nan issue, pinch nan caput of nan office, Special Agent successful Charge Robert Tripp, and nan supplier who runs its counterintelligence operations, Assistant Special Agent successful Charge Jeff Fields, taking a refreshingly "aggressive" attack to engaging pinch nan backstage assemblage and academia arsenic early arsenic possible.

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Just past week, Casey, who's based successful Washington, D.C., flew crossed nan state to meet pinch Fields and exertion researchers astatine nan University of California, Berkeley -- immoderate of whom expressed interest that nan U.S. authorities mightiness extremity up stifling start-up companies successful its thrust to protect them.

Casey said he welcomed specified pushback.

"I don't deliberation it serves immoderate of america peculiarly good if each that happens is group from D.C. show up, publication our talking points to nan group successful nan Valley and say, 'You should do these 5 things,' and past locomotion out. That's dumb," he said. "So if we don't travel retired and do nan reality cheque occasionally, past we're failing everybody."

During their meetings, 1 of nan researchers, an master successful defense-related analysis, told Casey astir a database she and chap researchers are building that will seizure each of nan economical espionage cases that person been made public. Casey told ABC News that specified a database could beryllium a assets for nan FBI and U.S. intelligence communities arsenic they effort to pass nan backstage assemblage astir threats from China, Russia and different adversaries.

Having those "really coagulated examples and inclination lines is incredibly useful," Casey said.

Casey's activity for nan past twelvemonth came to a caput connected Monday, erstwhile successful a first-of-its-kind nationalist push, nan U.S. authorities and 4 of its closest friends simultaneously released caller warnings astir really overseas intelligence services and criminals are targeting Western tech companies.

On Monday, nan "Five Eyes" confederation -- nan United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and nan United Kingdom -- each launched online portals pinch elaborate booklets and bulletins urging start-up companies and their imaginable investors to take "security from nan start" by pursuing a bid of "cost-effective" suggestions.

"There's a increasing consciousness that we each person nan aforesaid problem," Casey said.

Among nan suggestions: "We urge vetting each imaginable investors, suppliers, and partners."

When informing astir nan threats posed by China and Russia, Casey has repeated a statement utilized by galore nationalist information experts: While Russia's efforts against nan United States are for illustration a hurricane, China's efforts are for illustration ambiance change, he said.

What China's doing is "this slow emergence that possibly you don't salary attraction to, but 1 time your location is flooded," Casey said.