The CIA falsely believed it was 'invincible' in China — here's how its spies were reportedly discovered in one of the biggest blows to the agencyDavid Choi 6h aho
*A new Foreign Policy report cites sources detailing how the communication system between the CIA's spies and handlers in China nearly a decade ago was compromised.
*The vulnerability contributed to the deaths of at least 30 spies, the sources said.
*This internet-based system, imported from operations in the Middle East, was apparently brought to China under the assumption that it could not be breached.
*But, according to the report, the program actually had telltale links to the CIA that would have allowed China to work out what was going on.
A firewall used by the CIA to communicate with its spies in China compromised their identities and contributed to their executions by the Chinese government, several current and former intelligence officials told Foreign Policy magazine in a report published Wednesday.
In a two-year period starting in 2010, Chinese officials began accurately identifying spies working for the US.
Chinese authorities rounded up the suspects and executed or imprisoned them before their handlers were able to determine what was going on.
"You could tell the Chinese weren't guessing," one of the US officials said in the report. "The Ministry of State Security were always pulling in the right people."
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https://www.businessinsider.com/how-china-found-cia-spies-leak-2018-8