U.S. Counterintelligence Chief: 'We Had a Horrible Year' by Caitlin Yilek - Washington Examiner
The head of U.S. counterintelligence said the government would unveil a new strategy to combat insider threats that have afflicted the spy world.
“We had a horrible year last year in 2019, with indictments, arrests, convictions of clearance-holders as well as arrests, indictments, convictions of nontraditional collectors in the private sector — theft of intellectual property and trade secrets,” William Evanina, the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said Tuesday.
“It was not a good year for industry nor the government,” he said at a meeting of the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology, according to the Washington Times.
China, in particular, has been a subject of concern as a number of former intelligence officers have been recruited by Beijing to pass along government secrets. At least four Americans pleaded guilty or were convicted of espionage or attempted spying in the past two years.
Top government officials have increasingly warned about China’s “whole-of-society” approach to conducting espionage through its intelligence services, state-owned enterprises, private companies, students, and researchers.
Through its Thousand Talents Program, Beijing has recruited academics and entrepreneurs to work in China in an effort to gain access to proprietary information…