The CIA wants to make it easier -- and safer -- for people in Iran, China and North Korea to share information with the US's premier spy agency. The agency on Wednesday posted online instructions in Korean, Mandarin and Farsi detailing steps that potential informants can take to contact US intelligence officials without putting themselves in danger. The instructions include ways to reach the CIA on its public website or on the darknet, a part of the Internet that can only be accessed using special tools designed to hide the user's identity.
The CIA 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 said in a statement. "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, presented in text-only videos and infographics, include using a virtual private network, or VPN, to circumvent Internet restrictions and surveillance, and the use of a device that can't easily be traced back to the user. The CIA also urged any potential informants to use private web browsers and to delete their Internet history to cover their tracks. The messages in the three languages were posted on Telegram, YouTube, X, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Several of those platforms are blocked in China, Iran and Rus.