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We identified a North Korean hacker who tried to get a job

blog.kraken.com

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Re: We identified a North Korean hacker who tried to get a job

#31

Post by smallnix »

the_af wrote: post #20
Dachande663 wrote: post #3

From somewhere in the depths of an old reddit thread, someone recommended asking candidates "How fat is Kim Jong Un?" Instant hang-up.

Why would this work? Spies are trained to behave like the host country would expect, why wouldn't hackers? If hackers have access to the outside world (something they would need to be effective), they'd know the world thinks Kim is fat. "He's very fat, haha!", end of story. Edit: wait, or better yet: "how on earth would I know, and why are you asking this in a job interview? Is this because I'm Korean? I'd like to fi…

Not sure some rank and file 50ct army "hacker" wants to take the risk to insult their god-dictator.

Re: We identified a North Korean hacker who tried to get a job

#33

Post by noitpmeder » 

   Before this interview, industry partners had tipped us off that North Korean hackers were actively applying for jobs at crypto companies.
   We received a list of email addresses linked to the hacker group, and one of them matched the email the candidate used to apply to Kraken.
This doesn't sound so impressive?

This single red flag should invalidate the candidate immediately, end of story.

Re: We identified a North Korean hacker who tried to get a job

#34

Post by danielvf »

klodolph wrote: post #21
donnachangstein wrote: post #4

They used their leet "OSINT" skillz to ask the most basic of questions and background checks that nearly any traditional interview process would immediately uncover, then think it's so novel it's worthy of a blog post. On the surface it seems the "security" industry is lacking in the most basic of security processes when hiring. I don't think I've ever worked anywhere that could accidentally hire a North Korean witho…

The fake people are sometimes backed by entire teams (the article alludes to this). It’s easier to do well in your job when you’re supported by a team of people, maintaining the fiction that you’re one person. This isn’t happening left and right. It’s an attack against specific industries, like crypto and finance. It’s one part of a broader pattern of attacks.

It used to be only against specific industries, but now it's evolving. Now they have groups just going after remote IT jobs regardless of industry.

Re: We identified a North Korean hacker who tried to get a job

#35

Post by mattlondon »

Multiplayer wrote: post #7

Here's a heretical thought: Remote hiring is a massive achilles heel. I've been duped simply by hiring a great engineering candidate who then farmed out the actual work to remote workers in Pakistan and India. We caught on fairly quickly thanks to one of them forgetting to login to one of our backend systems via vpn a few times. No idea how many companies he was "working for" but I'd bet we were one of many. Remote w…

Yep. It started with COVID where understandably 100% of interviews were remote.

But now with COVID a thing of the past, for "fairness" reasons (DEI?) we still do 100% remote interviews, but now have the ludicrous situation where we're asking interviewers to do absurd things like look for the reflections in the candidates' eyes/glasses to see if they're using ChatGPT, ask the candidate to swing the webcam around to make sure there are not other people in the room, ask them to hold their hands up to the camera to show they're not typing a prompt (which is even more stupid than it sounds because voice recognition is amazing these days), or ask them not to look away from the camera when answering questions (so not reading answers from another monitor) and other stupid things. How ridiculous.

The sooner we get back to in-person interviews the better. Get them to come to the office (which they'll need to do one day if they get the job) and sit next to them while they code on a work laptop).

Sorry to all those folks who want 100% remote, but this is why we can't have nice things.

Re: We identified a North Korean hacker who tried to get a job

#37

Post by ta1243 »

corytheboyd wrote: post #17
donnachangstein wrote: post #4

They used their leet "OSINT" skillz to ask the most basic of questions and background checks that nearly any traditional interview process would immediately uncover, then think it's so novel it's worthy of a blog post. On the surface it seems the "security" industry is lacking in the most basic of security processes when hiring. I don't think I've ever worked anywhere that could accidentally hire a North Korean witho…

> yet fake people are getting hired left and right. Hate to be that person, but what are you reading that makes you think this is true? Agree that the article is pretty dumb though, especially the OSINT and Crypto “don’t trust, verify” comments. Feels like content marketing that didn’t really hit.

They're getting interviews left and right

https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/29/north_korea_worker_in...

According to Crowdstrike (the company that wiped out most of global technology last year) at least

> My favorite interview question, because we've interviewed quite a few of these folks, is something to the effect of 'How fat is Kim Jong Un?' They terminate the call instantly

Re: We identified a North Korean hacker who tried to get a job

#38

Post by klodolph »

mystraline wrote: post #12

Its quite saying, that in order to get interviews, you have to basically lie your way with various generative AI. Whereas, I've been looking for quite a while, with very few bites. And nobody so far on HN Who's hiring responds, except for a place that seems to want 60h/week and pay for 40h/week. Being genuine and truthful in the age of generative AI, LLMs, quiet quitting, /r/overemployed (on the sly working multiple…

I’m a little skeptical that generative AI is an effective way to land a job.

It doesn’t really seem like it helps that much in résumé generation. Are people applying to enough hundreds of jobs that generative AI helps you keep up with the sheer volume of text you need to send? Some people are… but these aren’t people who know what good résumés look like, because those people write their own résumés, and these people aren’t people who are good with LLMs, because that skill is in-demand.

I think it’s just a tight, tough market. What I’ve seen is job searches that take longer and have higher standards. You’re competing with a larger pool of experienced candidates. And various companies are worsening the work conditions because the market favors it (and they want “unregretted attrition”).

It’s hard not to be cynical. But I think it’s just a shitty market to be looking for a job, it’s not a paradigm shift that favors dishonesty.

Re: We identified a North Korean hacker who tried to get a job

#39

Post by barbazoo »

corytheboyd wrote: post #24
Multiplayer wrote: post #7

Here's a heretical thought: Remote hiring is a massive achilles heel. I've been duped simply by hiring a great engineering candidate who then farmed out the actual work to remote workers in Pakistan and India. We caught on fairly quickly thanks to one of them forgetting to login to one of our backend systems via vpn a few times. No idea how many companies he was "working for" but I'd bet we were one of many. Remote w…

How do weekly 1:1 meetings with a manager not catch this very quickly? Okay, maybe the original suave interviewer comes back for those… Still feels like a good EM would pick up on discrepancies between work done and how the suave person talks about it. It depresses me, but you’re probably right about in-office work being the only guarantee against this type of scam. I wish we could just have nice things.

I also can’t imagine this not getting caught if not in the interview process surely during every day work. Maybe this says more about their work culture and not actually connecting with co workers. Perhaps the manager was just garbage who knows.
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