The CIA is making efforts to simplify and enhance the safety for individuals in Iran, China, and North Korea who wish to share information with the U.S. spy agency. On Wednesday, the CIA released online guidelines in Korean, Mandarin, and Farsi, outlining secure methods that potential informants can use to contact U.S. intelligence officials without risking their safety.
These guidelines provide detailed instructions on how to reach the CIA either through its public website or the darknet, a concealed part of the internet accessible only with special tools that protect the user’s identity. The CIA had posted similar instructions in Russian two years ago, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“People are trying to reach out to us from around the world and we are offering them instructions for how to do that safely,” the agency stated. “Our efforts on this front have been successful in Russia, and we want to make sure individuals in other authoritarian regimes know that we’re open for business.”
The tips are presented in text-only videos and infographics, which include recommendations such as using a virtual private network (VPN) to bypass internet restrictions and surveillance, and employing a device that cannot be easily traced back to the user. The CIA also advised potential informants to use private web browsers and to clear their internet history to avoid detection.
The multilingual messages were broadcasted across various platforms, including Telegram, YouTube, X, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Although many of these platforms are blocked in China, Iran, and Russia, they can still be accessed using a VPN.
Around the globe, authoritarian regimes have exploited the internet for mass surveillance and for propagating disinformation while censoring dissenting websites and viewpoints. China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran commonly block access to American platforms like Facebook, manipulating web access to control the information their citizens can see.
VPNs and similar tools offer ways to circumvent this censorship and surveillance, but their growing popularity has made them targets. In its guidelines, the CIA cautioned potential sources to choose their tools carefully, as their safety could hinge on selecting the right program.
“Use a VPN provider not headquartered in Russia, Iran, or China, or any other country that is considered unfriendly to the United States,” the agency advised in its instructions for Mandarin-speaking users.