Top US official warns of 'large uptick' in foreign spies targeting tech companies

The nation's chief counterintelligence officer, Mike Casey, is warning of a "large uptick" in foreign spies trying to secretly infiltrate tech companies in the United States so they can steal America's latest innovations.

According to Casey, America's own economy and national security -- even democracy itself -- are at stake, with China in particular looking to use stolen technologies to crush U.S. competitors, squeeze civil liberties inside China, and boost China's military might.

"We're not perfect, but I don't want to live in the dystopian version of the [People's Republic of China]," joked Casey, who as director of the U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center coordinates and guides the nation's counterintelligence activities.

Casey said that over the past two years, as U.S. companies began to heed warnings about questionable investments from China, the U.S. intelligence community has seen a spike in China's use of front companies and other proxies to access start-up companies and then steal their new technologies.

By Casey's own description, at least some of what drives his concern is classified U.S. intelligence, which presents a "huge challenge" for U.S. officials who want to persuade start-up executives with no security clearance -- and little money -- to be very careful in choosing investors and partners.

That's why Casey's center, part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the FBI have spent much of the past year not only trying to figure out not how to convince tech companies that the threat to their business is real, but also how to offer suggestions for mitigating it.

According to Casey, the FBI's field office in San Francisco, near Silicon Valley, has been a leader on the issue, with the head of the office, Special Agent in Charge Robert Tripp, and the agent who runs its counterintelligence operations, Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jeff Fields, taking a refreshingly "aggressive" approach to engaging with the private sector and academia as early as possible.

Just last week, Casey, who's based in Washington, D.C., flew across the country to meet with Fields and technology researchers at the University of California, Berkeley -- some of whom expressed concern that the U.S. government might end up stifling start-up companies in its drive to protect them.

Casey said he welcomed such pushback.

"I don't think it serves any of us particularly well if all that happens is people from D.C. show up, read our talking points to the people in the Valley and say, 'You should do these five things,' and then walk out. That's dumb," he said. "So if we don't come out and do the reality check occasionally, then we're failing everybody."

During their meetings, one of the researchers, an expert in defense-related analysis, told Casey about a database she and fellow researchers are building that will capture all of the economic espionage cases that have been made public. Casey told ABC News that such a database could be a resource for the FBI and U.S. intelligence communities as they try to warn the private sector about threats from China, Russia and other adversaries.

Having those "really solid examples and trend lines is incredibly useful," Casey said.

Casey's work for the past year came to a head on Monday, when in a first-of-its-kind public push, the U.S. government and four of its closest allies simultaneously released new warnings about how foreign intelligence services and criminals are targeting Western tech companies.

On Monday, the "Five Eyes" alliance -- the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom -- each launched online portals with detailed booklets and bulletins urging start-up companies and their potential investors to choose "security from the start" by following a series of "cost-effective" suggestions.

"There's a growing sense that we all have the same problem," Casey said.

Among the suggestions: "We recommend vetting all potential investors, suppliers, and partners."

When warning about the threats posed by China and Russia, Casey has repeated a line used by many national security experts: While Russia's efforts against the United States are like a hurricane, China's efforts are like climate change, he said.

What China's doing is "this slow rise that maybe you don't pay attention to, but one day your house is flooded," Casey said.