How a North Korean Fake IT Worker Tried to Infiltrate Us
blog.knowbe4.com
How a North Korean Fake IT Worker Tried to Infiltrate Us

Archived version

KnowBe4 needed a software engineer for our internal IT AI team. “We posted the job, received resumes, conducted interviews, performed background checks, verified references, and hired the person,” the firm writes on its blog.

“We sent them their Mac workstation, and the moment it was received, it immediately started to load malware.”

[Special points to KnowBe4 for publishing this on its blog. If this can happen to a security awareness firm, it can happen to everyone.]

  • OmnipotentEntity@beehaw.org
    14·
    5 months ago

    The scam is that they are actually doing the work, getting paid well

    Listen. I know that there are some really shitty stuff going on in North Korea, and very real threats that their government is capable of, and it sucks for the people living there who have to do this work under threat of death.

    But if you say that “the scam” is they’re doing work and receiving full pay for work done, I’m going to make fun of you. Oh no, someone outside of the West did work and was slightly less exploited by capital than usual in the process. Horror upon horror.

    • HandlesEnglish
      17·
      5 months ago

      Yeah, they seem to be downplaying the malware bit in that paragraph.

    • Rekhyt@beehaw.org
      2·
      5 months ago

      You cut off the second part of that sentence. The scam isn’t doing the work from a different location, the scam is that they’re using the money to fund North Korea. This isn’t “Kim gets a job online” it’s “Kim is a state actor that is a security risk at any moment and meanwhile causing KnowBe4 to send money to a sanctioned country.”