Chinese firm with links to military profiled 1,400 Malaysians - Report

A Chinese firm with links to the military and intelligence network in China has collected information to create profiles of 1,400 Malaysians, according to a report from Australia-based ABC News.

The 1,400 Malaysians are in the data of 250,000 persons recovered from a leaked database of 2.4 million people originating from Zhenhua Data.

The report does not go into detail on the nature of the information collected on the 1,400 Malaysians.

But based on data of 35,558 Australians who are part of the recovered data, they include profiles of politicians, judges, diplomats, journalists and tycoons.

Apart from Australians and Malaysians, the data also included profiles of 52,000 Americans, 10,000 Indians, 8,700 British, 5,000 Canadians, 2,100 Indonesians and 138 from Papua New Guinea.

The report, which also looked at data involving the Americans, found that among others, there were profiles of military personnel.

"The database tracks promotion prospects of officers and political networks.

"In one instance, the career progression of a US naval officer was closely monitored, and he was flagged as a future commander of a nuclear aircraft carrier," said the report.

The report said the Shenzhen-based Zhenhua Data has China's People's Liberation Army and Chinese Communist Party among its main clients.

Zhenhua Data reportedly has 20 data collection centres across the globe.

The report said while most information is collated from open-source materials, some profiles include information believed to be from confidential bank records, job applications and psychological profiles.

It said the data was leaked to US academician Chris Balding, who had worked at Peking University in China until 2018. He has since left the country.

Balding subsequently passed the database of 2.4 million people to Australia-based cybersecurity company Internet 2.0, which managed to recover 10 percent of the data.

Balding said the data suggested that China was conducting mass surveillance of people around the world.

The report also quoted Clive Hamilton, a professor of public ethics with Charles Sturt University, who explained how the established links in the profile could be used.

"If you're a 14-year-old daughter of a politician, then we now know that China's intelligence service is monitoring your social media commentary and recording pieces of information that are of interest or may be of interest in the future," Hamilton said.

Malaysiakini is unable to independently verify the claims in the report. - Mkini