Spy Who Married A Techie: Inside The Rise Of 'Sex Warfare' In Silicon Valley

He met her at a conference. She seemed brilliant, charming, and genuinely interested in his work. Years later, he realised she was part of a carefully orchestrated intelligence operation, designed to extract secrets from America's tech frontier. This is the reality of espionage in Silicon Valley today.

Chinese and Russian operatives are reportedly using attractive women to infiltrate tech companies, seduce employees, and steal trade secrets. They sometimes marry their targets and have children to maintain long-term access. Named "sex warfare" by intelligence experts, this reportedly poses a growing threat to US technological dominance.

James Mulvenon, chief intelligence officer of Pamir Consulting, which advises US companies investing in China, has witnessed the surge firsthand. "I'm getting an enormous number of very sophisticated LinkedIn requests from the same type of attractive young Chinese woman," he told The Times. "It really seems to have ramped up recently."

At a recent business conference in Virginia on Chinese investment risks, Mulvenon noted that two attractive Chinese women attempted to gain entry. "We didn't let them in," he said. "But they had all the information [about the event] and everything else." Mulvenon, a counterintelligence veteran of 30 years, calls the tactic a "real vulnerability" for the US because it is culturally and legally restrained in such operations. "So they have an asymmetric advantage when it comes to sex warfare."

The New Face Of Espionage

Sex-based espionage is only one part of the threat. Experts say China is hosting startup competitions on US soil to extract business plans, while Russia and China are using ordinary citizens, investors, academics, crypto analysts, as informal intelligence agents, making these operations harder to spot.

A former counterintelligence officer recounted a case involving a "beautiful" Russian woman who married an American aerospace engineer while pursuing sensitive projects. "Showing up, marrying a target, having kids with a target-and conducting a lifelong collection operation, it's very uncomfortable to think about but it's so prevalent," he said.

Intellectual property theft costs up to $600 billion a year, mostly from China. Startups risk losing secrets or being forced to move to China if they share plans with Chinese investors.

Silicon Valley: 'Wild West' Of Espionage

The Valley is now a hub for "soft" economic espionage, targeting tech and trade secrets. Mulvenon calls China's approach "drafting," buying stakes in DoD-funded startups to block US access. "It's the Wild West out there," said Jeff Stoff, a former US security analyst.

The region's open culture draws spies like moths to a flame, with even allies like South Korea and Israel quietly gathering intelligence.

In Silicon Valley, political spying is active too. California hosts a Chinese intelligence unit that recruits local leaders and politicians. Cases like Rose Pak, a powerful San Francisco broker, show how subtle influence operations can be, as per Politico.

During the 2008 Olympic Torch Run, Chinese intelligence reportedly moved thousands of students to suppress protests by Tibetans, Uighurs, and Falun Gong supporters.

Russian espionage has also evolved, from Cold War surveillance to infiltrating venture capital and tech startups, still using honeypots and intermediaries even after the Russian consulate closed in 2017.

China casts a wider net, described by former officers as an "Oklahoma land rush" for technology and IP.

US counterintelligence faces hurdles: startups often underreport threats, and the open culture makes infiltration easy. As tech spreads to Boulder, Chapel Hill, and Austin, new vulnerabilities may start to rise.