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We found North Korean engineers in our application pile
11–20 of 141 posts
Re: We found North Korean engineers in our application pile
#12What an unempathetic read
for "worker applies to remote job and going through the incredibly uncomfortable but no less than the necessary desperate steps to try and keep it." Sure you have to reject them due to sanctions but in their absence, would you still? I'm sure there are spies and clearly this company uncovered an operation, but it's hard to judge because I would try it if it meant I could make US money.
Because damn this article is being really overt with the racism which is pretty surprising since it's attached to a company blog. The implication that no one in the entire country of NK could be qualified for anything but the bare minimum for a junior is pretty insulting. I worked in a research lab with Chinese spies— really nice smart folks. I really can't imagine NK being so different as to not have any qualified people.
Re: We found North Korean engineers in our application pile
#13(from the indictment link)
> Christina Marie CHAPMAN, a U.S. national, conspired with certain overseas IT workers to affect a scheme to defraud the United States and its agencies. Specifically, CHAPMAN: (i) assisted the overseas IT workers in validating stolen identity information of U.S. citizens so the overseas IT workers could pose as U.S. citizens; (ii) received and hosted laptops issued by U.S. companies to the overseas IT workers in her U.S. residences (a “laptop farm”), so that the companies believed the workers to be located in the United States.
I think if the US govt makes such cases public, puts a few news stories out in popular media, indicating the harsh sentences and such, it might make US citizens think twice about helping NK hackers set up their base here.
Re: We found North Korean engineers in our application pile
#14Are they any good at their jobs? The article makes it sound like these guys are none too bright and not especially well trained. Are companies just that desperate?
Most companies aren't good at tech hiring, and even worse at evaluating engineer output
Re: We found North Korean engineers in our application pile
#15I can think of maybe 20 countries where people would do this before DPRK, not least China, but quite a few in Europe to, Poland, India. why DPRK? like the level of Pakistan CS grads is probably better than most US ivy league grads, cant imagine DPRK has much of a CS education system.
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Re: We found North Korean engineers in our application pile
#16>> I added that this is a natural fit for us, because our co-founders came from the US intelligence community including the CIA. Upon hearing this, one suspected North Korean applicant immediately dropped from the Zoom call and never contacted us again.
A few years ago I was getting scammer calls at the same time every day. I started answering as "Fraud desk, Agent Scully". They would hang up instantly and the calls soon stopped altogether.
Re: We found North Korean engineers in our application pile
#17 > What tipped us off
> 5. Background noise during their interview that indicated other people speaking in an interview-like setting
Also, how dare those people apply jobs for an US based cybersecurity firm? Don't they know what cybersecurity firms do? Go apply a Web3 companies, they also uses Vue/React all front-end kids stuff and some of them still got deep pockets.
Re: We found North Korean engineers in our application pile
#18Are they any good at their jobs? The article makes it sound like these guys are none too bright and not especially well trained. Are companies just that desperate?
My company had an issue like this recently, they just had a smart guy take the interview / handle the paperwork and then a completely different guy show up on their first day.
My company is pretty small, so we caught it within an hour of getting him onboarded. But I can see this being trickier in bigger companies, where the hiring process is more disconnected from the team they get assigned to.
Re: We found North Korean engineers in our application pile
#19Are they any good at their jobs? The article makes it sound like these guys are none too bright and not especially well trained. Are companies just that desperate?
Remote work scammers play the numbers game. Fabricating (stealing) identities and applying to jobs is their full-time job.
When you apply for jobs nonstop and can multiply your efforts by applying under a multitude of different names and resumes, eventually you get bites. Push long enough and you might catch a desperate hiring manager who doesn't know how to interview people but is under pressure to fill headcount immediately to hit their KPIs or whatever.
They play it like a numbers game. They also get better by constantly A/B testing their process and practicing interviews over and over again.
Re: We found North Korean engineers in our application pile
#20> What tipped us off > 5. Background noise during their interview that indicated other people speaking in an interview-like setting The rest maybe false flags, but this really seals the deal. (or... maybe it's just a recent day in Starbucks. But I don't take the risk) Also, how dare those people apply jobs for an US based cybersecurity firm? Don't they know what cybersecurity firms do? Go apply a Web3 companies, they…
Oh they do