Chinese Firm Uses AI to Sell Stolen Government Secrets

Zhengzhou Zhirong Network Technology Co., a China-based cybersecurity firm, is using artificial intelligence to organize and analyze stolen secrets from foreign governments for sale to Chinese authorities. Internal company materials, including chat logs and a slide deck, reveal that the firm offers a menu of sensitive data harvested from the government email systems of Russia, Pakistan, the Philippines, and the Vatican.

The company employs an AI-powered system integrated with models from Alibaba and DeepSeek to automate the generation of intelligence reports. These reports are sold to clients that include Chinese police units. The stolen materials include Russian diplomatic correspondence, Vatican communications regarding the funeral of Pope Francis, and Philippine briefing materials concerning territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

Western intelligence officials characterize the firm as part of a larger network of private companies that steal confidential information to support the Chinese state. The operation demonstrates a shift toward using commercial AI to scale the processing of stolen intelligence for state security agencies.