Nvidia, Jensen Huang And The History Of 'Sexpionage'

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Sexpionage captures headlines and drags eyeballs. The promise of a fallen man (nearly always a man) has been a staple of tabloid newspapers, novels, films and television for well over a century. Among the most prominent examples is the Profumo Scandal in the 1960s.

At that time, the then-UK secretary for war, John Profumo, had an affair with a 19-year-old woman, who was also intimate with a Soviet defence attache. This created an intelligence vulnerability. Similarly, suggestions of government connections to the dead and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein provide whiffs of espionage to sexual abuse and compromise.

Sexpionage can even be seen in biblical accounts. The Book of Joshua tells the story of a woman called Rahab who used her access to Jericho's military leaders to pass on secrets to the Israelites. It also featured in the intrigues of the middle ages and prominently in the first world war.

Mata Hari, a Dutch dancer and spy, was executed in 1917 having promised intelligence to both the French and German militaries. These intrigues were based on her entanglements with senior military officials on both sides.

Later, during the Cold War, the Soviets and East Germans refined their use of so-called“honeytrap” agents towards using ordinary looking, reasonably well-educated men and women with whom a relationship would look believable. These relationships often began without coercion and consequently the betrayal of secrets was more enduring and deniable.

A large number of Western officials were recalled home from Moscow or Soviet satellite states during this period after being caught in compromising and staged situations with Russian agents. There were some, like British civil servant John Vassall, whose compromised status was not detected and who spied for the Soviet Union.

Intelligence agencies also had conspicuous success during the cold war through the exploitation of closeted gay men like Vassall and the Canadian ambassador to Moscow, John Watkins, whose compromise might see them prosecuted if they did not comply.

According to author Henry Schlesinger, the purpose of sexpionage falls into four categories. First is to control or coerce the target, persuading them to spy. Second is to collect“pillow talk”, the injudicious comments to a lover in an intimate moment and giving access to their phones or computers.

The third category is collecting information that allows for further exploitation of the target. Minor legal snags such as recreational drug use or driving infringements can be leveraged further. And the fourth is collecting a means by which to discredit protest or political movements.

This is essentially the subject of the current Undercover Policing Inquiry in the UK. Evidence to the inquiry by the Metropolitan Police has confirmed that undercover police officers engaged in sexual relationships to collect intelligence and undermine protest groups from the 1970s until at least 2011.

Targeting tech executives

If we bring sexpionage to the modern day, what might an intelligence agency or officer be considering when targeting a technology executive?