Chinese cyber-spies are being accused of setting up fake Facebook accounts to steal military secrets from the West.

The Guardian newspaper reports the spies created a fake Facebook profile pretending to be NATO’s most senior military commander Admiral James Stavridis. The goal: to glean inside information from his closest friends and colleagues.

This kind of web fraud is called social engineering and is increasingly common. NATO says it isn’t clear who was behind the pages but the digital fingerprints point towards China.

This story is part of Federal News Radio’s daily Cybersecurity Update. For more cybersecurity news, click here.

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