According to the Ministry of State Security, poorly managed publicly accessible data, including social media, is a "key source" of intelligence for foreign spies.

China's top intelligence agency has cautioned that open-source information puts national security at risk by leaving private information exposed to foreign spies.

The Ministry of State Security (MSS) stated in an essay published on its official WeChat account on Sunday that sensitive information that has not been appropriately declassified or risk-assessed can be widely disseminated online and serves as a valuable source of open-source intelligence for foreign espionage services.

According to the ministry, open-source information is legally and publicly accessible through platforms that offer blog posts, online forums, social media posts, news reports, and satellite images. It also frequently contains a wealth of useful data and intelligence that can be a major source of cyber espionage.

The ministry issued a warning, stating that foreign intelligence services may use big data analysis to perform accurate, consistent, and continuous tracking of targets and extract useful intelligence from fragmented and ambiguous data. This makes information security operations more difficult and necessitates more stringent and efficient methods to stop information breaches.

Sensitive information may be revealed during the procurement bidding process, thus the MSS called attention to three areas of concern and advised prudence. In order to safeguard national secrets, it referenced incidents of building projects involving sensitive data and the digitalization of private archives, both of which necessitated security measures throughout the procurement process.

According to the ministry, poor management and ignorance may result in the disclosure of procurement information, goals, or private technological data. The MSS went on to say that government organizations should exercise caution when disseminating information to the public, noting instances in which certain organizations failed to adhere to confidentiality protocols, which led to the online publication of private data.