> Jin-su spent most of his time trying to secure fraudulent identities which he could use to apply for jobs. He would first pose as Chinese, and contact people in Hungary, Turkey and other countries to ask them to use their identity in exchange for a percentage of his earnings, he told the BBC. "If you put an 'Asian face' on that profile, you'll never get a job." He would then use those borrowed identities to approac…
North Korea sent him abroad to be a secret IT worker
51–60 of 77 posts
Re: North Korea sent him abroad to be a secret IT worker
#52But are they any good? I suppose they must be, as they seem to retain their jobs, but how do they rank overall? Also, I tend to think that maintaining these interactions going might be a way to let more information into Naughty Korea and might actually have a positive influence in the long run.
Re: North Korea sent him abroad to be a secret IT worker
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's 2025, it's all about zero-trust now. Can't be inside the security perimeter when there is no security perimeter. Hiring mischievous North Koreans is fully in line with your CIO's new priorities, which she heard about at a conference once.
The reason that North Korea targets IT roles in particular is precisely because they're the weak link in zero-trust implementations. Someone, somewhere, has the unfettered rights to access the production database, and they're in the IT department.
Re: North Korea sent him abroad to be a secret IT worker
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh my God, you are so naive. Normal stuff in NK is watching your kids wasting away because of lack of calories (average North Korean is 10 inches shorter than average South Korean-even though 70nyears ago they were the same people genetically). Is living with a radio in your home that does not stop singing praise to the regime - neighbors will report you if they think you turned off the radio. If they have free thoug…
You're just feeding into western propaganda. Yes North Korean people are poor and there's tons of inequality but they are still real people. They are not in a constant war being bombed and tortured endlessly. They tend to farms, chat with friends, make jokes, feel pain and joy, they do what they can. I know that sounds like literal hell to a tech obsessed population that has to filter everything through the lens of s…
[0] about inequality in communist countries- these countries had much less inequality than western countries. Almost everyone was equally poor. In my home country of Romania the top 100 level apparatchiks (people who rworked directly with Nicolas Ceausescu) had the life style of a surgeon or wealthy dentist in the west: they had a “villa” with 3-4 bedrooms in the Primaverii neighbourdhood and a cottage somewhere. They still had to drive their own Romanian Dacia car. They had good heating and the electrical blackouts did not happen in their neighborhood. They had access to special stores to buy food( they did not wear western clothing). The rest 99.99% of Romanian people were all equally poor: they lined up at the same food queues, lived in the same cold apartments, lacked electricity and medicines equally, drank the same yellow/ brown tap water, listened to the same 2 or 3 western radio stations broadcasting in Romania, etc…
Stalin and the members of his governments also did not live lavishly: Stalin always wore a military coat and all through the 80s the Kremlin looked as drab as ever. His dacha had 4 bedrooms and two floors.
Compare this inequality vs what has been going on in the west. Wealthy people in the west own islands: both Google guys, JP Morgan, the Bush family. They own not just 1 yacht, but another one to follow along with their help on the summer Mediterranean milk-run. They own not just one mansion, but multiple mansions.
I want to conclude this long post by saying that under communism I was personally aware of this difference between the inequality in the west and the equality in communist Romania. And that once Romania overthrew their dictator and inequality exploded I personally felt much better. Sure, 2 or 3 of my classmates started driving to high school in their BMWs-and I spent all of high school in the same patched up jacket. The rich boys had their group physically close and yet separated from us. They were sure to tell girls how much their latest gizmo costed or how big the disco bill from previous night was. Of course they did that in front of poor guys like myself(labagii) All of which is not nice at all. But at least now I had food, heat and electricity-and a chance to leave for better places. I would take this trade-off today just as eagerly as I took it in Dec 89.
Re: North Korea sent him abroad to be a secret IT worker
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh my God, you are so naive. Normal stuff in NK is watching your kids wasting away because of lack of calories (average North Korean is 10 inches shorter than average South Korean-even though 70nyears ago they were the same people genetically). Is living with a radio in your home that does not stop singing praise to the regime - neighbors will report you if they think you turned off the radio. If they have free thoug…
You have no idea what happens in NK and are trying to pretend you do because you read some western propaganda. Get a clue.
Re: North Korea sent him abroad to be a secret IT worker
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
The risk is not the quality of the work that the person might do. The risk is that you now have a state-controlled North Korean asset operating inside your security perimeter.
A lot of these are not there to breach your data, they're there to make money and fund the DRPK. That's why there's no one industry or types of businesses being targeted, it's anywhere they can get hired. If your a high profile target, that's a bonus not the original goal.
Re: North Korea sent him abroad to be a secret IT worker
#57perfect example of why you shouldn’t bother hiring these cheap offshore engineers. you’re hiring an engineer thousands of miles away in another country for a fraction of the cost of an American engineer and you just assume they can be trusted with access to your most sensitive data and systems? And that they even are who they say they are and not just a frontman for some cabal?
They thought they were hiring American engineers, though. The only way to prevent this is to do in-person only, but that's another can of worms.
Heh, maybe we need to make a 2FA device with biometrics and GPS, where it's setup in person the first time.
Re: North Korea sent him abroad to be a secret IT worker
#58Re: North Korea sent him abroad to be a secret IT worker
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
How trustworthy is that American? You know that the North Korean is untrustworthy, but that's kind of a special case. Is a random American more trustworthy than a random Bangladeshi or Slovakian? I suppose that you have a bit more ability to do background checks on US citizens. But those background checks aren't so great, either.
A random person in your own country is more trustworthy for two reasons. 1. background checks 2. more ability to meet face to face. 3. ability to go after them for wrongdoing (either civil cases or chances of getting the police to follow up on anything criminal.
Re: North Korea sent him abroad to be a secret IT worker
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
You have no idea what happens in NK and are trying to pretend you do because you read some western propaganda. Get a clue.
Gone on, tell us, which podcast should we be listening to?
If you are ignorant on something you are better off keeping quiet than regurgitating low IQ propaganda.