Testimonials
2025
Sam JP Morgan Chase ** Establishing Cooperation in Chinese Culture**
Great course, one of the better descriptions of Chinese culture I've seen for a western audience. I would recommend spending some additional time on generational differences in culture. The youth culture discussed is now common in people up to their 30s which make up a sizable portion of interlocutors with western business and government. This generation deviates substantially in some areas like drinking culture and have adapted some elements of guanxi and face in unexpected ways. I also commiserate as a fellow 艾.
Adam Fitzsimmons - JPMC ** Establishing Cooperation in Chinese Culture**
Thank you again for the course, very interesting, so much so I have purchased 2 books via Amazon. Thanks again.
2024
Chuck Benton ** Establishing Cooperation in Chinese Culture**
This is a great course to understand critical concepts of Chinese that will help all different career fields. Specifically, learning the roots of Chinese culture and how it has evolved and adapted to the modern era, and the key elements needed to understand, develop, and control relationships. Highly recommended!
Anonymous High-Tech Engineer
A rare, helpful and extraordinarily well put together presentation. Core essentials from two semesters at an Ivy League college would have difficulty being as interesting and relevant. Wish there had been something like this to study a few decades ago. Might have changed the course of my career.
L.A./Major Financial Institution ** Chinese Intelligence Operations and Tactics**
This course was extensive in scope and effective in delivery. Nick provided great information that is highly useful. It was good to be able to get a beginning to end understanding of the topic, players, environmental influences, as well as specific identifiers and flags to note for real world implementation.
Thomas Security Researcher - Very through course. I originally bought it to help me get a better scope on insider threats and this course covered a large amount of information. I highly recommend getting it if you want to improve your understanding of the biggest threat facing the United States. Keep up the great courses!
MITRE - Good course, appreciated the unique perspective that isn't always given. I felt a few times that statements would benefit from citation, but I found them in the lesson notes.
Carlson - Regional Security Manager Aerospace and Defense Company (Traveling in China Security Professionals) - Great course - provides a comprehensive look at the CCP surveillance state and intelligence collection apparatus. Good practical tips to brief travelers on prior to travel to China.
Anonymous - Establishing Cooperation in Chinese Culture: This is a great course to understand critical concepts of Chinese that will help all different career fields. Specifically, learning the roots of Chinese culture and how it has evolved and adapted to the modern era, and the key elements needed to understand, develop, and control relationships. Highly recommended!
Eric N. I recently took Shinobi Enterprises' China Travel Security Course for Professionals online and was very happy with the material presented. Nicholas Eftimiades' depth of knowledge and understanding of China as a multi-front adversary is truly amazing! I appreciated the way that he set the stage by describing China's traditional intelligence collection entities to include their roles and functions at the very beginning of the course. I found it very helpful. The "how" and "why" China spies on it's adversaries both military and civilian portion of the course served to further add to my understanding of the material presented. The portion on security while traveling in China, to include the vast number of AI capable installed cameras, the guidance regarding hotels as well as other technical surveillance measures was a real eye-opener. I was unaware of China's "10 Block" security system and found the information on that topic to be very interesting. Part II of this course was also extremely useful in regard to China's global collection efforts. The preparation to travel and the actual travel in China provided some great nuggets of information. I highly recommend this course to anyone who is involved in private corporate or government security as well as those who have dealings with China commercially.
2023
Jack Hinds. One of the best courses I have ever taken. Both presentation and content were superb. I look forward to seeing new content in the future.
James Lockhart, PhD Rabdan Academy/Zayed Military University, Abu Dhabi
Highly recommended, easily worth 10x the price. I especially appreciated Prof. Eftimiades's fluency in the culture, history, and politics of China, which remain crucial in fully understanding the intelligence strategies and tactics of Beijing.
Anonymous. This is an excellent primer for any current or aspiring insider threat, security, or counterintelligence professional. It provides a great overview of Chinese intelligence activities and effectively synthesizes what is publicly known about their targets, tactics, techniques, and procedures. I would recommend this course to anyone generally interested in developing a fundamental understanding of the intelligence threat presented by the CCP or aspiring to have a career as a insider threat or counterintelligence professional.
Michael Thim, Threat Intelligence, Analyst Ericsson
Highly recommend this course, authors speaks from immense depths of knowledge on a topic that is overwhelming in its scope, and yet does it in a concise manner and easy to understand way. Students do not need to be China specialist to benefit greatly from the course.
David Blankenship
I was introduced to Nick when he presented a brief presentation to an association of security professionals. He mentioned this course, and I signed up quickly. It is a seminal work in the field that I would highly recommend as a foundation on the topic. I will return to his presentations regularly as a primary source. Nick's clarity and depth of knowledge are second to none.
Dustin Todd SCRM Counterfeit and Assessment Branch Amentum
This course was extremely beneficial and full of knowledge that I gained to become more aware on tactics and analysis research in my current field of occupation. Being a prior LEO, I found that this course retrained my thought process to become more knowledgeable and better at detection of intelligence collection. Great course
Matthew - JPMorgan Chase & Co.
The course was outstanding and the level of detail that Nick provides is truly made me feel so much smarter on Chinese Intelligence. Kudos to Nick for making this course available to the public!
John Goldman, Peraton
I was very pleased with this course. This was the most comprehensive instruction on Chinese intelligence operations and tactics, as well as the history of Chinese culture, society, and government that I've taken. I would recommend this course to anyone who is interested in learning more about Chinese foreign intelligence threats. I think a course like this that begins at the beginning of Chinese history is necessary for an analyst/CI/IR professional who specifically focuses on countering Chinese foreign intelligence threats. I liked how the course was geared toward both the experienced CI professional as well as those who may be newer to the field (ex: how you defined the different types of espionage).
John A. Greaves, Jr, CFE, CPP
I've admired Nick Eftimiades ever since his (circa 1994) publication of his book Chinese Intelligence Operations. It was my honor and delight to learn in 2022 that Nic had published a 12-hour online course on Chinese intelligence operations. I completed the course at a leisurely pace in about a month and half. The course was well structured, rich in content and context. The online delivery was well structured. For the price point, this was a tremendous value for 12 hours of high-quality training. I highly recommend this course. It is relevant to anyone working in the corporate / industrial defense base space.
R. Breeden
This in-depth course provided an overall picture of Chinese intelligence organizations, strategies, and exploits through the presentation of key operational tactics derived from (a vast and growing database) numerous case studies. I found the course to be highly informative and of great benefit to anyone in the intelligence, counterintelligence, security, and risk management fields. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!
Ben Beard, Mithril Security Pty Ltd
Fantastic course that I thoroughly recommend to anyone involved in government, defence, defence industry or academia security. Better and more detailed information than anything I received on China in over 15 years with a TS/SCI clearance. (To be fair, never watched 12 hours of lectures on the topic before either.) Completion of this program brings clarity to the threat of CCP directed espionage and interference, and enables security people to implement effective measures. Thanks Nick, I really enjoyed it!
Prof John M. Nomikos
Director, Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS)
Chairman, European Intelligence Academy (EIA), Athens, Greece.
The online course “Chinese Intelligence: Operations and Tactics” is a fascinating experience! Nicholas Eftimiades provides knowledge about the Chinese Intelligence structure, culture, history and political-economic development into 21st century. It is a Must for anyone interested in Chinese Intelligence Structure!
Matt C. Program Manager (former FSO)
Very informative course on Chinese operations (and tactics) when it comes to espionage. There is no doubt that Nick is a subject matter expert on the topic. I had some knowledge on the topic but nowhere near the detail when it comes to the CCP’s organization, including the UFWD. Why and how targets are selected was eye opening. I’ve already recommended the course to another co-worker and plan to recommend to former colleagues from my days as FSO.
2022
Joshua W.
Nick's Course on CCP espionage was fantastic. I came into the course thinking I knew a good amount about the CCP's espionage tactics, and quickly realized I had a lot to learn. Over the course of the 12 hour instruction, I learned a lot about the CCP organizations involved, the "whole of society approach," collection targets, and how the CCP collects information and works to influence others to do the CCP's bidding. As someone working in government who is interested in this subject, I highly recommend this course.
Elsine Van Os
CEO Signpost Six, Insider Risk Management
I'm proud to have completed Nicholas Eftimiades' Chinese Intelligence: Operations and Tactics online training course. I'm grateful Nick took the time and effort to share all his experiences and wisdom in this course. It's a mind-boggling amount of information and therefore a must for anyone in intelligence, security, China interests, and of course insiderthreat/insiderrisk
Eric N. US Department of Defense
Without a doubt the best, most informative course on Chinese espionage, influence and information operations I have ever taken. Everything is logically presented from "why" the CCP collects the information to the organizations involved and the methodologies used. This course is a must for intelligence professionals, organizations and even companies that are at risk from China's espionage activities.
G.P., CI & Investigations for a large defense contractor
Nick’s knowledge on the topic was incredibly in depth and unlike any I have taken on the topic. The detail into which he elaborates how the history and culture of the country contributes to the current strategies of its intelligence collection really provides valuable context. When you understand the “why” you can then look at their operations through a different lens. Nick was also extremely thorough in detailing the multitude of “agencies” and avenues for intelligence collection that China has at its disposal. Extremely valuable instruction for any CI professional; if your nation’s or organization’s security is your responsibility, you need this course.
Andrew A. Program Manager, Supply Chain Security
The training by Shinobi Enterprises was very well done, focusing on China's intelligence operations, tradecraft, Chinese espionage, economic espionage, covert action, theft of technology and trade secrets, among many other related topics within all training eight modules. The training was professionally presented, using real world examples, cases and an overall instructional program that I found very beneficial!
Craig Klootwyk, Program Analyst, Supply Chain Security
Shinobi Enterprises provided excellent training on the threats and rationale of Chinese culture. Nick has a wealth of knowledge and experience on the subject and I will be able to use this information going forward in my role. I highly recommend this course to anyone seeking an in-depth understanding of cultural and professional actions that could create security threats to the US.
Norm Arendt, PhD Arendt Safety Consulting
I recently took the course on Chinese Intelligence presented by Shinobi Enterprises and highly recommend the course for those in both the security and the intelligence communities. It covered where we are today with dealing with Chinese intelligence and where we are possibly headed. A very well prepared course that is relevant to today's intelligence demands.
Melissa Saunders, Director, Intelligence & Defense Programs, Intellibridge
This is a very thorough and interesting overview of China's extensive intelligence activities. Professor Eftimiades draws on his decades of research, experience, and expertise to deliver professionally developed, in-depth course modules that inform participants about all aspects of China's espionage machine -- and its inherent potential threat to U.S. national security. Professor Eftimiades' personable presentation style and fascinating stories and materials make for an engaging course on a topic critical to any professional serving U.S. national security interests. Public & private sector professionals, academics, and students will all benefit from this open-source intelligence-informed course, unparalleled in the unclassified environment.
A Senior Advisor to Cybersecurity and Intelligence for the Federal Government
As usual, Nick gets really deep into the subject with great case studies, illustrations, and superb explanations! I am really looking forward to taking future course work from Nick!
Rang,
This course was really great and one of a kind. I would recommend this course to any (cyber) security professional, law enforcement official, and insider threats specialist. Thank you Nicholas Eftimiades!
Dave Snell. Independent Security Advisor/Consultant.
The course was thoroughly researched and expertly presented. Nicholas is an expert with first hand experience with the subject matter. He presents a VERY tough subject with a finesse needed for it. I HIGHLY recommend anyone who is interested in the current status of PRC/CCP efforts against the West and the US in particular take the course as quickly as they can.