Circumventing Surveillance: Technology and Incentives in China

This week, we are joined by Kyla Cardona and Aurora Johnson from SpyCloud discussing their research "China’s Surveillance State Is Selling Citizen Data as a Side Hustle." Chinese technology companies, under CCP mandate, collect vast amounts of data on citizens, creating opportunities for corrupt insiders to steal and resell this information on dark markets. These stolen datasets, aggregated into "Social Work Libraries" (SGKs), mirror lower-tech versions of CCP internal security databases.

Kyla and Aurora discuss how Chinese cybercriminals use these SGKs and their implications compared to Western, European, and Russian cybercrime ecosystems. With expertise in Chinese OSINT and cybersecurity policy, both researchers bring deep insights into the geopolitical and technical dynamics of China's digital landscape.

The research can be found here:

• “Pantsless Data”: Decoding Chinese Cybercrime TTPs
• A Deep Dive Into the Intricate Chinese Cybercrime Ecosystem
• China’s Surveillance State Is Selling Citizen Data as a Side Hustle

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