from Hacker News

US dismantles laptop farm used by undercover North Korean IT workers

by benguild on 8/26/24, 12:30 PM with 31 comments

  • by kevdoran on 8/26/24, 1:18 PM

    Any thoughts on how to report requests to do things like this?

    I've had several emails from strangers over the past month asking to use my identity (i.e. Upwork profile), setup a report laptop, and "collaborate".

    Until now I've just ignore them or mark them spam.

  • by ZoomZoomZoom on 8/26/24, 1:26 PM

    > the North Korean IT workers who used Knoot's laptop farm generated revenue for North Korea's nuclear weapons program

    Such an off-handed manner of presenting a really strong accusation! How did they do it exactly, directly, or just being citizens and paying taxes?

  • by jetbalsa on 8/26/24, 1:09 PM

    It amazes me they didn't use some kind of KVM on these laptops instead of software, most company laptops have a ton of bossware on them monitoring applications and such

  • by iJohnDoe on 8/27/24, 2:23 AM

    FTA > This happened even though KnowBe4 conducted background checks, verified references, and conducted four video interviews before hiring an individual. However, the company later discovered that the person had used a stolen identity to bypass these checks and AI tools to create a fake profile picture and mimic the face during video conference calls.

    Wow! It’s truly sad that qualified people are struggling to get through interviews and hoops to get hired, but North Korean hackers are landing jobs.

  • by tiimbz on 8/27/24, 7:57 AM

    Related post from yesterday: We found North Korean engineers in our application pile [0]

    [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41353079

  • by loandbehold on 8/26/24, 1:10 PM

    Did these schmucks even understood what they were doing? Most likely they were recruited with "work from home" offer and thought they were doing legitimate jobs. They are victims themselves.

  • by gundmc on 8/26/24, 1:15 PM

    $250k/year for a job that they seemingly never needed to take a single meeting and can work remotely? Buried the lede here!

  • by bitwize on 8/26/24, 2:21 PM

    "Mom, I want the Dark Army from Mr. Robot."

    "We have the Dark Army at home."

    The Dark Army at home: