Chinese spies using LinkedIn to steal secrets from recruits, Five Eyes warns

Chinese spies are using job hiring networks such as LinkedIn to find professionals with access to sensitive information. (ABC News: Liam Phillips)

Australia and its partners in the Five Eyes alliance have issued a warning about Chinese spies flooding job platforms.

The operatives post ads and go through the recruitment processes to pry sensitive information from candidates, according to the notice.

Applicants are being told to stay alert, with anyone with indirect links to government and defence data at risk.

Australia and its partners in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance have issued a rare joint notice warning about Chinese spies aggressively using LinkedIn and other job platforms to "lure" recruits with access to sensitive information.

"China's military intelligence services are using an increasingly wide array of professional networking sites and online job platforms to target Five Eyes government and military personnel, and anyone with access to classified or privileged information," the domestic security agencies from the US, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand said.

The "Safeguarding Our Secrets" bulletin said the Chinese operatives were posting fake online job ads, posing as "employees of private consultancies, think tanks or human resources firms".

Their primary targets are government or military personnel, or anyone with access to classified information.

Also at risk are academics, journalists, think tank employees, and professionals with links to defence and economic sectors who may have indirect access to government data.

"Chinese military intelligence services ultimately seek to acquire privileged military, political and economic intelligence that can provide China with a strategic and tactical advantage over the Five Eyes," according to the notice.

The FBI posted about the threat, warning: "Applicants beware!"

According to the Five Eyes notice, spies were carrying out an "aggressive" recruitment strategy, attempting to form long-term relationships that would result in the exchange of classified or privileged information.

Beijing has repeatedly rejected such espionage claims made by Western intelligence agencies. (Reuters: Carlos Garcia Rawlins/File)

Clive Hamilton, a professor of public ethics at Charles Sturt University in Canberra, said the method being used was not necessarily new but it was "surprising and disturbing" that people were being drawn into it.

"There are plenty of naive experts out there who seem quite happy to sell their expertise without understanding the risks of doing so," he told the ABC.

"When mo