How North Korea's IT army is hacking the global job market
Contents
Nearly every Fortune 500 company is hiding the same uncomfortable secret: They have hired a North Korean IT worker.
Why it matters: Despite how widespread the issue is, few companies are willing to talk publicly about it.
Experts say reputational risk, legal uncertainty and embarrassment all contribute to the silence — which in turn makes the problem harder to solve.
Dozens of resumes, LinkedIn profiles and fraudulent identity documents shared with Axios lay bare the scale and sophistication of the scams.
The big picture: For North Korea, this is a precious revenue stream that evades American sanctions — capitalizing on the wealth of high-paying remote worker roles in the U.S. to route cash back to Pyongyang.
In the past two years, companies and their security partners have begun to grasp the scale of the problem. Now, they're sounding the alarm about where it's headed next.
"They've been stealing intellectual property and then working on the projects …
Why it matters: Despite how widespread the issue is, few companies are willing to talk publicly about it.
Experts say reputational risk, legal uncertainty and embarrassment all contribute to the silence — which in turn makes the problem harder to solve.
Dozens of resumes, LinkedIn profiles and fraudulent identity documents shared with Axios lay bare the scale and sophistication of the scams.
The big picture: For North Korea, this is a precious revenue stream that evades American sanctions — capitalizing on the wealth of high-paying remote worker roles in the U.S. to route cash back to Pyongyang.
In the past two years, companies and their security partners have begun to grasp the scale of the problem. Now, they're sounding the alarm about where it's headed next.
"They've been stealing intellectual property and then working on the projects …