Chinese vendor jailed for giving railway data to foreigners: State Security Ministry

Ministry says Chinese company was enticed by lucrative contract to gather data later identified as ‘intelligence information’

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China’s Ministry of State Security says it has identified and jailed citizens for collecting data from China’s railways, which the ministry deems “intelligence information”, for a foreign company. Photo: AFP

Published: 6:00pm, 2 Sep 2024Updated: 7:01pm, 2 Sep 2024

China’s top spy and anti-espionage agency says it has cracked the case of a Chinese company helping an overseas client gather data about Chinese railways and jailed those who leaked the data.

It is the first known case since September 2021, when Beijing’s Data Security Law became effective, of collected data being identified as intelligence.

The Ministry of State Security (MSS) made the statement in a post on its social media on Monday, reminding Chinese companies and individuals to “keep a tight grip on data security”, and to be vigilant against foreign intelligence agencies stealing critical data from China.

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It said an unnamed Chinese information technology company received a commercial contract in late 2020 to collect electronic signal data along China’s vast railway networks from a foreign company that said it had been a market researcher before entering China’s railway market to provide technical support services.

The foreign company, which could not send its personnel to China because of Beijing’s Covid restrictions, outsourced the work to Chinese vendors, the ministry said. It added that it found out the foreign company had many customers, including foreign intelligence agencies, defence and military units and government departments.

It said the Chinese company was aware that the foreign company might have “ulterior motives” but, enticed by a lucrative contract, it went ahead to buy and install equipment according to the foreign party’s contract requirements, collected data at fixed locations and conducted mobile testing and data collection in multiple cities and at high-speed rail lines as specified by the foreign client.

The ministry said the project collected 500 gigabytes of data in one month, including signals from Internet of Things transmissions, cellular and railway communications and confidential networks.