North Korean agents pretending to be IT guys have funneled up to $1 billion into Kim Jong Un's nuclear program
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In corporate security circles, a ghastly new fear has led to some strange advice for recruiters interviewing potential IT staffers: Ask the candidate to insult North Korea’s Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-un. The idea is that if the interviewee is a North Korean agent posing as a regular candidate, he’ll be visibly thrown off, outing himself.
But at a cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas this August, an analyst wearing a black hoodie and dark glasses who goes by “SttyK” broke some disappointing news to a packed crowd of researchers, executives, and government employees: That trick no longer works. “Do not [ask why] Kim Jong-un is so fat,” SttyK warned in all-caps on a presentation slide. “They all notice what you guys have noticed and improved their opsec [operation security].”
It might sound far-fetched—like the plot of a Cold War–era spy movie—but the scheme is all too real, according to the FBI and other …
But at a cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas this August, an analyst wearing a black hoodie and dark glasses who goes by “SttyK” broke some disappointing news to a packed crowd of researchers, executives, and government employees: That trick no longer works. “Do not [ask why] Kim Jong-un is so fat,” SttyK warned in all-caps on a presentation slide. “They all notice what you guys have noticed and improved their opsec [operation security].”
It might sound far-fetched—like the plot of a Cold War–era spy movie—but the scheme is all too real, according to the FBI and other …