Ex-CIA Officer: US Companies Are Underestimating China Spy Threats

The FBI opened a new China-related counterintelligence case roughly every 10 hours in 2020 — and former CIA officer Michele Rigby Assad says most US companies still aren't ready for the threat behind those numbers.

"It takes a disaster for people to realize that a little bit of training could have mitigated the risk," Assad told Business Insider. She served in the CIA from 2002 to 2012, working undercover in the Middle East on counterterrorism and counterintelligence. Today she trains companies to recognize foreign intelligence threats and consults on Chinese intelligence operations in Florida.

Her warning lands amid the tech industry's biggest espionage scare in years. Nvidia's board is investigating whether CEO Jensen Huang was the target of a foreign intelligence effort. Nvidia says it has no reason to believe national security or company secrets were compromised. China has denied the espionage allegations. Assad did not assess the evidence in the case, but given Nvidia's central role in the US-China competition over AI, she said the reports didn't surprise her.

The scale of the broader threat is well documented. In 2020, then-FBI Director Christopher Wray said nearly half of the bureau's roughly 5,000 active counterintelligence cases were China-related. More recently, the FBI said it helped facilitate 62 removals of foreign intelligence threats through its China program this year.

Separately, Megaspeed, an Nvidia customer, has faced scrutiny over whether it helped Chinese customers access advanced chips restricted by US export controls. Nvidia said it found no evidence Megaspeed illegally transferred its products.

Why valuable technology makes you a target

Assad's core message for executives is blunt: if you own technology worth stealing, assume someone is trying to steal it.

"If you have products that are of interest to the Chinese and you've spent millions or billions of dollars developing that product, you are a target," she said. "It's so much easier for the Chinese to steal those secrets, product designs, etc. than it is to spend billions of dollars trying to engineer what you've already developed."

"Counterintelligence training for the private sector should be a priority, so that people understand the risk and know what an intelligence operation looks like in real life," Assad said.

She also flagged the human factor: companies need to "train ourselves out of the optimism bias that causes us to put on rose-colored glasses and not see what's happening in front of our faces."

How recruitment actually starts

So what does an operation look like in real life? Often, it starts with an invitation.

"Oftentimes experts are invited to speak or give a presentation at a conference in China," Assad said. "Then, Chinese contacts who develop a friendship with you, will start asking you for reports/insights that they pay you for."

The requests escalate from there. "People tend to get caught up in the ease with which they get paid for work that feels natural or with minimal risk," she said. "They identify your vulnerabilities, and they play on those weaknesses."

Those weaknesses shape the approach. An intelligence service might use financial incentives, or, as Assad put it, "insert a honeytrap into your social circle if you're lonely, feel unappreciated, etc." Her verdict: "The use of honeypots in intelligence is a tale as old as time."

The FBI echoes the warning. The bureau says counterintelligence risks often resemble ordinary business interactions — a "too perfect" investor, recruiter, or customer request, a new hire seeking unusual access, or a friendly contact who gradually asks for more information.

The training gap on the Space Coast

The shortfall is sharpest, Assad said, in strategically important industries. She pointed to Florida's Space Coast, where sensitive technology and development projects are underway.

Assad said she and her husband once saw people in a Cocoa Beach bar whom they believed were Chinese operatives "working the room," using tactics she recognized from her own intelligence work overseas. Business Insider has not independently verified that observation.

"We have engineers and people involved in secret developmental efforts that cost billions of dollars for our companies," Assad said. "And the Chinese have operatives crawling up and down."

That concern matches a 2023 federal advisory reported by MarketWatch, which warned that foreign intelligence entities were seeking sensitive technology and data from commercial space companies, including SpaceX and Blue Origin.

Here's the kicker for practitioners: Assad has offered free counterintelligence training to companies and business networks in the region. Nobody has taken her up on it. For firms holding billion-dollar IP, that's a gap competitors — and foreign services — can exploit before any disaster forces the lesson home.