Chinese firm Zhenhua collected data on 700 Czechs for use in ‘hybrid warfare’

The Chinese company Zhenhua Data Technology, which described itself as a pioneer in the use of data for ‘hybrid warfare’, collected profiles of about 700 prominent Czechs, Aktuálně.cz reports. The counterintelligence service BIS is now looking into the case.

Before Zhenhua took down its website, it had compiled a database of Czech politicians, diplomats, security staff, academics, businesspeople and their children. The company collected mainly public open-source data on people of interest, such as photographs, social network profiles and media mentions.

The personal details of about 2.4 million people worldwide were swept up by Zhenhua, which has reported links to China’s military and intelligence networks. A copy of its Overseas Key Information Database (OKIDB) left unsecured on the Internet was retrieved by an Australian cybersecurity consultancy.