India, Oct. 24 -- China and Russia are using female spies to seduce Silicon Valley professionals and gain access to US tech secrets, industry insiders have said.

James Mulvenon, the chief intelligence officer of Pamir Consulting, told The Times that he was recently targeted by 'foreign seductresses'. Pamir Consulting provides risk assessment to US companies investing in China.

"I'm getting an enormous number of very sophisticated LinkedIn requests from the same type of attractive young Chinese woman," said Mulvenon. "It really seems to have ramped up recently."

Mulvenon said he was recently at a business conference in Virginia where two "attractive Chinese women" showed up and tried to gain entry. We didn't let them in," he said. "But ...