The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is actively seeking informants in China, Iran, and North Korea, according to a spokesperson. The agency has already achieved success in recruiting individuals from Russia and now aims to expand its efforts to other authoritarian regimes. In order to reach potential informants securely, the CIA has posted instructions in Mandarin, Farsi, and Korean on various platforms including X, facebook, Instagram, Telegram, LinkedIn, and the Dark Web.
The CIA acknowledges the challenges posed by increased state repression and global surveillance. Therefore, the instructions advise potential informants to contact the agency through official channels while utilizing trusted virtual private networks (VPNs) or the TOR network for added security. Informants are encouraged to provide names, locations, contact details not associated with their real identities as well as any information that may be of interest to the CIA.
Ensuring safety and wellbeing is a top priority for the agency. Russia, China Iran,and North Korea have been identified as foreign adversaries by both the United States and its intelligence community due to their difficult-to-penetrate governments.
Recruitment efforts targeting Russian informants began in 2022 with posts in Russian across social media platforms providing secure communication instructions. These efforts were further expanded with videos released in 2023 and 2024. CIA Director William Burns highlighted that disaffection among some Russians over the war in Ukraine presented a rare opportunity for recruitment which should not be missed.
The videos released on official CIA social media channels aim to appeal to Russian patriotism while exposing corruption among top officials. One video message emphasizes that despite others’ reluctance to hear it,the truth is valued by the agency: “Those around you may not want to hear the truth.But we do.You are not powerless.”
