How the CIA Recruits Its Spies Worldwide Through the Internet

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has launched a new campaign aimed at recruiting potential spies in China, Iran, and North Korea, following what Washington claims was a successful effort to recruit Russians.

This is not the first time. For years, U.S. defense and intelligence agencies have played a key role in developing the internet, eventually shifting their recruitment methods online. Today, they leverage streaming services to reach potential spies aged 18 to 35.

A New American Campaign to Recruit Spies

The CIA’s new campaign follows claims of success in a previous operation focused on Russia. Now, the agency seeks to connect with individuals it believes are dissatisfied with their governments, especially amidst closer ties between China, Russia, and Iran.

On September 29th, the CIA announced the release of multilingual guidelines in Chinese, Korean, and Persian on social media platforms like Telegram, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. The goal is to facilitate secure communication with the agency, whether through the open internet or the dark web.

This strategy isn’t new; the CIA has been using the internet to recruit agents in more sophisticated ways for years. A 2020 report by Reuters highlighted how the CIA turned to streaming services like Netflix and Amazon to reach potential spies, reflecting a significant shift from traditional recruitment methods. Experts believe that these efforts showcase the evolving nature of espionage alongside modern technology.

How Were They Recruited in the Past?

In the past, intelligence agencies worldwide relied mainly on traditional espionage techniques, including sending targeted emails, organizing scientific conferences, offering fake job opportunities, and even direct meetings with intelligence officers.

These methods aimed to attract individuals and gather information that would shape government policies. For example, the CIA invested millions of dollars in organizing scientific conferences worldwide to lure Iranian nuclear scientists into environments where they could be discreetly approached and persuaded to defect.

One notable case involved an Iranian engineer who worked on assembling centrifuges for Iran’s nuclear program. He agreed to defect under the condition that he could pursue a Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Despite lacking formal documents, the CIA pressured MIT to accept him. After a verbal interrogation by a committee of professors, he was accepted and eventually earned his doctorate.

During President George W. Bush’s era, the U.S. government had “limitless funds” to support covert efforts to delay Iran’s nuclear weapons development. According to a report by The Guardian, intelligence gathered from academic conferences often shaped policies, including the mistaken belief—later disproven—that Saddam Hussein continued developing weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

While these traditional methods are still in use, they no longer always succeed due to various reasons, such as ongoing wars and rising open hostilities, as experts point out.

The Challenges of Modern Espionage

In Russia, since the beginning of the Ukraine war, the U.S. and its European allies expelled hundreds of Russian diplomats in protest of the conflict. In response, Russia expelled hundreds of Western diplomats in a series of reciprocal actions. Consequently, American and other Western embassies had to sharply limit their services, making direct communication with the United States more difficult.

In China, recruiting Chinese agents or even meeting with them has become more dangerous than ever. Beijing’s extensive surveillance system uses big data analytics, gathering information from millions of cameras in major cities, alongside a vast network of human monitors.

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, the CIA exploited widespread corruption in the upper echelons of the Communist Party and government ministries to recruit dozens of officials as paid informants. However, this network suffered a major setback when Chinese authorities arrested these infiltrators one by one.

Former officials attributed this collapse to failures in the CIA’s secure communications, which Beijing exploited. The details remain undisclosed, and it’s unclear whether any CIA personnel faced accountability.

A former senior U.S. official described the losses in China as “devastating,” casting doubts on whether there has been significant recovery since then. However, the U.S. government has never publicly acknowledged losing its Chinese agents between 2010 and 2012.

Refocusing U.S. Intelligence Efforts

With an annual intelligence budget of $100 billion, U.S. agencies are retraining their personnel, reallocating billions of dollars, and upgrading expensive espionage tools to focus on international adversaries. The CIA began planning its online recruitment campaign before the COVID-19 pandemic and is now using innovative methods to attract top talent, moving beyond the traditional approaches, as stated by CIA spokesperson Nicole de Haay in 2020.

In 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the CIA launched a campaign promoting its presence on the Darknet, encouraging Russians opposing the war to reach out through these dedicated, privacy-focused channels.

Before targeting China, Iran, and North Korea earlier this year, the agency had already directed a recruitment campaign at Russian intelligence services, aiming to attract agents from within, as tensions with the West continued to rise.

How Does the CIA Recruit Spies?

In recent years, the CIA has adopted creative marketing strategies to attract new recruits, moving beyond conventional tactics. In its 2020 campaign, the agency released a TV advertisement featuring an officer saying, “One piece of intelligence can change everything.”

In 2021, the CIA launched a new website aimed at recruiting exceptional spies from diverse backgrounds. According to the Associated Press, the revamped website includes links to browse full job listings, complete with salaries and requirements, sections about working for the agency, and a simplified application process.

By 2022, the agency continued to leverage social media, providing instructions in both English and Russian on how to access its Darknet site using the Tor browser, ensuring privacy and anonymity for Russian users who wished to reach out.

In 2019, the CIA created a Dark Web portal as a secure communication channel for users seeking privacy, including journalists and political dissidents. The agency continues to use such digital tools, launching a new campaign in 2024 targeting Russian intelligence officers, urging them to cooperate due to rampant corruption and poor conditions in their country.

In one of its promotional videos, a Russian man speaks of his patriotism and sense of betrayal by his government, encouraging fellow Russians to reach out to the CIA as an expression of their patriotism. The video, accompanied by poignant music and a wintry Russian backdrop, was shared across social media platforms like Facebook, X, and Telegram, showcasing the CIA’s evolving strategy to connect with its target audience.

Are New Recruitment Methods Effective?

It’s not just the United States using these tactics; China also employs social media platforms like LinkedIn to reach out to former U.S. intelligence officials. One notable case involved Kevin Patrick Mallory, a former CIA officer who fell into debt and sold secrets for money, including the identities of American intelligence officers traveling to China. He was convicted in 2018.

In 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the arrest of two U.S. Navy sailors accused of providing military information to China. Both were American citizens born in China.

And in 2024, Sergeant Corbin Schultz was arrested after leaking sensitive defense information to China, including documents on U.S. weapon systems and military strategies.

Countries like China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran are notoriously difficult to penetrate, making it extremely challenging for foreign nations to obtain accurate intelligence about their operations. These countries impose strict restrictions on American social media platforms like Facebook, citing incompatibility with their governments, limiting communication with the outside world. However, tools like VPNs allow users to circumvent these barriers.

As a result, the CIA relaunched its recruitment campaign last week. A CIA spokesperson revealed that the 2022 campaign and a video released in May 2023 garnered 2.1 million views on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and X, leading to contact with several individuals. However, details about specific recruitment activities remain undisclosed.