As further evidence of government surveillance insiders moonlighting in the data broker market, SpyCloud researchers point to a Communications and documents from I-Soon were leaked earlier this year.Cyber ​​espionage contractor for Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of State Security. In a leaked chat conversation, one company employee suggested to another that “I’m only listening here to sell qb,” and “Sell some qb yourself.” Spycloud researchers interpret “qb” as “qíngbào” or “intelligence”.

Given that the average annual salary in China, even at a state-owned IT company, Just around $30,000.SpyCloud researchers say that the promise of earning about a third of that per day in exchange for selling access to surveillance data—however credible or dubious—represents a strong lure. “It’s not necessarily the mastermind,” Johnson says. “They are people who have an opportunity and a goal to make a little money.”

That some government insiders are actually taking advantage of their access to surveillance data is to be expected among China. Continuous struggle against corruptionsaid Dakota Cary, a cybersecurity researcher at China-focused policy and cybersecurity firm Sentinel One, who reviewed SpyCloud’s findings. Transparency International, for example, China ranks 76th out of 180 countries in its corruption index.Below every EU country except Hungary — with which it has ties — including Bulgaria and Romania. Kerry says corruption is “pervasive in the security services, in the military, in all parts of government.” “It’s a top-down cultural attitude in the current political climate. It’s not at all surprising that people with this kind of data are effectively renting out their access as part of their job.

In their research, SpyCloud analysts tried to use Telegram-based data brokers to find personal information about individual Chinese state-sponsored hackers, some high-ranking Chinese Communist Party and People’s Liberation Army officials. Identified in the US indictment, and CEO of cybersecurity company I-Son, Wu Haibo. The results of those queries included phone numbers, email addresses, bank card numbers, car registration records, and a bag of “hashed” passwords—passwords presumably obtained by breaching data encryption. are protected by a form of but sometimes prone to cracking. For those government officials and contractors.

In some cases, data brokers at least claim to limit searches to exclude celebrities or government officials. But the researchers say they were generally able to find a solution. “You can always find another service that’s willing to search and get some documents on them,” says Kayla Cardona, a researcher at SpyCloud.

The result, as Cardona describes it, is an even more unintended consequence of a system that collects such vast and centralized data on every citizen of the country: not only does surveillance data leak into private hands; , but it also goes into the hands of these people. Who are watching the viewers.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” says Cardona. This data is collected for and by them. But it can also be used against them.