How Russian spies lured Silicon Valley insiders

A former Russian intelligence trainee has warned that foreign operatives are using romance scams and emotional manipulation to extract trade secrets from Silicon Valley’s engineers and executives — an espionage tactic she says is spreading rapidly through the tech sector, according to a New York Post report.

Aliia Roza, a former Russian “sexpionage” trainee who defected to the United States, told The New York Post that she was trained from a young age to seduce and psychologically manipulate targets on behalf of state authorities.

“They see the target, they need to get information,” Roza told The Post. “They need to manipulate the target, emotions, feelings, or whatever they can do, they will do it.”

What is ‘sexpionage’ and how is it used?

The Times of London recently reported tha