Amid Nvidia’s suspected Chinese spy scandal, what is a ‘honey trap?’

The allegations that the CEO of one of the world’s most powerful tech companies became entangled with a suspected Chinese spy rocked the tech world this week, but was unlikely to shock many in the world of intelligence gathering.

That’s because “honey trap” operations — where a spy works their way into a romantic relationship with their target to obtain information — is among the oldest bits of tradecraft in intelligence gathering.

“Sex is one of the oldest intelligence weapons. Technology has changed espionage, but human vulnerabilities haven’t,” said Toby Braun, CEO of the American Special Investigative Group, said in an interview with Global News.

“Sex, money, ego, power truly remain one of the most effective tools to compromise individuals.”

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stepped down Thursday amid reports he had multiple extra-marital affairs, including with one woman the U.S. intelligence community believes was acting on behalf of China.

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China’s foreign ministry accused the U.S. of trumping up allegations of spying, but the damage to Huang’s leadership was already done by the time allegations of an affair with another woman, this time his subordinate at Nvidia, surfaced.

The chipmaking company was on course to lose roughly $500 billion in market value after tumbling more than 12 per cent in early trading Thursday, making the alleged affairs among the most costly in history.

1:52 Nvidia stock slides amid concerns about CEO’s alleged affair with Chinese spy

It also robbed AI boosters of one of their most vocal and powerful champions. The 63-year old Huang, who co-founded Nvidia, has turned the chipmaker into one of the most important pieces of the AI boom.

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Reuters reported that Huang’s exit has plunged the approximately $4 trillion company into uncertainty, and could disrupt the AI ecosystem that he helped foster by investing Nvidia’s profits back into the industry.

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In a 2020 threat report aimed at business travellers, Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) refers to honey traps as “sexual entrapment,” and suggested it often includes covert recording of an “intimate encounter” that is then used as blackmail material.

“Foreign governments are known to employ this tactic, and travellers should be aware of the potential hazards of accepting offers of companionship while travelling,” the document read.

A more recent CSIS report on foreign interference detailed “cultivation,” a tactic in which spies attempt to develop deep, long-lasting relationships with a target that may or may not involve sex in order to steal information.

In other words: spying, according to former CSIS intelligence officer Andrew Kirsch.

“As intelligence officers, you’re trying to build rapport with people, and have them talk to you and trust you and get information that way. This is really an extension of that,” Kirsch said in an interview.

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Braun said his private security company has seen instances of honey trap operations dramatically increase in recent years, targeting both individuals in government operations and the private sector, particularly in companies with government contracts.

“That could be anyone from a lower-level employee at a company that’s producing government technology or a government contractor, because even those people may have access to certain information,” Braun said.

“And then it goes all the way up to the C-suite level. Obviously the goal is to hit the jackpot.”

Unlike lower level employees, however, executives like Huang would have access to professional corporate security and private intelligence, if not regular briefings from U.S. intelligence agencies. The CEO of a major technology firm would know that they were likely to be a target for foreign intelligence agencies.

But corporate security plans only work if you actually follow them. Kirsch said often it takes a major scandal like this to wake executives up to the risks.

“We saw after the United Health CEO got shot in New York, that all of the sudden you have a lot of executives who are asking their corporate security teams, ‘Hey, remember that assessment you had done? … I’d like to revisit it,’” Kirsch said.

“Often it takes some kind of catalyst event for the executive to take it seriously.”