Espionage doesn’t always look like trench coats, dead drops, or encrypted messages. Sometimes, it looks like a charming smile, a chance meeting, and a relationship that feels too good to be true.
On this episode of Breaking Battlegrounds, hosts Sam Stone and Chuck Warren sit down with Dr. Mike Waller, a veteran journalist and investigative writer on national security, intelligence, and counterterrorism, to discuss one of the oldest—and most effective—tools in espionage: the honeypot.
And according to Waller, this tactic isn’t just alive and well—it’s evolving, and America’s tech sector is squarely in the crosshairs.
What Is a Honeypot Spy?
A “honeypot” operation involves using an attractive individual—often a woman—to form a relationship with a target in order to extract information, influence behavior, or compromise them.
As Waller explains, this technique isn’t new.
“It’s been happening since Old Testament days,” he notes, pointing out that seduction and emotional manipulation have been staples of intelligence operations for thousands of years. What has changed, however, is how these operations are carried out—and who is being targeted.
Why the Tech Sector Is a Prime Target
Contrary to popular belief, foreign intelligence services aren’t just targeting CEOs or senior executives. They’re going after mid-level engineers, developers, and socially isolated tech workers—people with access, disposable income, and often little experience navigating sudden attention or romantic interest.
As Chuck Warren notes, events like major tech conventions create the perfect hunting ground: large gatherings of socially awkward professionals, many newly wealthy, far from home, and unaware they’re being sized up.
Waller confirms this isn’t accidental.
“These are marks,” he explains. “They’re not the guys you expect. They’re the ones who don’t have much of a life beyond the computer screen—and suddenly, someone is very interested in them.”
Emotional Bonds, Not Just Blackmail
In the past, honeypot operations often relied on sexual compromise and blackmail. But as social norms have changed, so have intelligence tactics.
Today’s operations are far more sophisticated—and more dangerous.
Rather than brief affairs, Chinese intelligence services in particular are building long-term emotional relationships with their targets. Some operatives enter multi-year relationships, marry their targets, and even have children—all while quietly extracting information or influencing decisions.
“There’s a school for this in the Chinese intelligence service,” Waller reveals.
And this isn’t theoretical. These programs are modeled on Cold War tactics used by the KGB and other Soviet intelligence agencies—something Waller knows firsthand, having met a former KGB officer who went through such training himself.
A Tried-and-True Formula
Sam Stone sums it up with a line that’s circulated in government circles for years:
“If you’re a five and she’s a nine, she’s a spy.”
It’s said jokingly—but behind the humor is a serious warning. These operations work precisely because they exploit human weakness, not technological vulnerability.
Firewalls don’t stop loneliness. Encryption doesn’t protect against emotional manipulation. And access doesn’t always look important—until it is.
Why This Matters Now
As geopolitical tensions rise and technology becomes inseparable from national security, the human element remains the weakest link.
This Breaking Battlegrounds conversation is a reminder that modern warfare isn’t just fought with missiles or malware—it’s fought through relationships, trust, and manipulation.
Understanding these tactics isn’t paranoia. It’s preparedness.
Because sometimes the biggest security threat doesn’t arrive through a server breach—but through a smile.
Transcript
Sam Stone: Welcome to another episode of Breaking Battlegrounds with your Chuck Warren. I’m Sam Stone. Our first guest up today, Dr. Mike Waller has been a journalist and investigative writer on national security affairs, including intelligence, counterintelligence and counterterrorism related issues. You can follow him on X at Michael Waller. Mike Waller, welcome to the program.
Mike Waller: Hey Jeremy, it’s great to be here.
Chuck Warren: So Mike, you wrote a piece about China and Russia deploying honeypot spies, which are basically attractive women that try to develop relationships with targets. Can you tell us a little bit about it and how much this is happening in the tech sector?
Mike Waller: Well, it’s been happening since the Old Testament days.
Sam Stone: I actually have a book on it that goes back to the old testament days on it.
**Mike Waller: **Yeah, so it’s really nothing new. It’s a pretty tried and true method of compromising people and over the years as morals have changed and social attitudes have changed, it’s gotten different too. So you don’t have so much of the sexual relations for black male that there used to be. It used to be very successful where people would do anything to cover up illicit.
Sam Stone: Right, today you just post about it on Instagram and be like woo hoo.
Mike Waller: Yeah, yeah. So now it’s even more sinister in a way because the Chinese spies are building emotional bonds with their targets and even entering into long-term relationships at marrying and having families with them.
Chuck Warren: That’s a great, you know, I what stands out for me on this because they’re specifically targeting the tech sector a good friend of mine was top Defense attorney for Clark County, Nevada, and he would always say that his busiest time was during the CES Convention week, which I laughed at and I said why is that he goes because you have all these socially awkward tech guys who now have a little money and they get a little too grabby with the women.
And so they’re just like the perfect sucker for this, right?
Mike Waller: Right. It’s not just the CEOs who they’re going after. Right. would think, they’re going after the high level guys. No, they want those geeks who probably don’t have a life beyond the computer screen. Who all of a sudden have cash, have a way to show off, be a big man, and now they’re a mark. And they immediately get a very interested, lovely, and charming woman who shows real and genuine interest in them. There’s a school for this in the Chinese intelligence service.
Sam Stone: There was in the USSR too, yeah.
Mike Waller: I met actually a KGB man who had gone through that school himself.
Chuck Warren: That’s amazing.
Sam Stone: Now, I mean, one of the things I always say, you know, I mean, this has gone around in government a long time, but there’s sort of a kind of a laughing saying that I’ve heard before. If you’re a five and she’s a nine, she’s a spy.
Mike Waller: Right right.
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