A crypto startup seeking to onboard new expertise is making an attempt to weed out potential North Korean spies with an ingenious take a look at that asks candidates to say one easy factor: “Fuck North Korea.”
In keeping with g8keep co-founder Harrison Leggio — often known as Pop Punk on X (previously Twitter) — North Korean engineers might be outed by asking them to say one thing adverse about North Korea and Kim Jong Un.
To exhibit this, he shared an interplay with a possible recruit making use of for a developer function. When requested to say the phrases “I hate Kim Jong Un, Fuck North Korea,” the potential recruit “immediately” deleted the chat.
Customers on X are already joking about utilizing the North Korea litmus take a look at in their very own on-line chats. Software program engineer Laurence E. Day mentioned, “This is unironically best practice for interactions with technical folk in crypto.”
One other person posted, “Brb making this the official entrance policy,” whereas one mentioned, “Finally, someone has found the purest form of defense against North Korean blockchain exploiters.”
North Korea needs to infiltrate distant job roles
PC Magazine reviews that tech startup Cinder has seen a number of functions for distant jobs that it suspects had been submitted by North Korean hackers.
Protos beforehand reported that North Korean hackers focused a US-based tech agency and accessed its crypto clientele final yr. Cybercriminals have additionally pretended to be journalists and South Korean authorities officers to lure unsuspecting victims into clicking phishing emails that drain their crypto.
Learn extra: Korean gov’t officers focused by North’s ‘journalist’ crypto hackers
Certainly, in 2022 US authorities companies revealed warnings that IT staff from North Korea could also be signing up for distant working jobs utilizing false credentials.
Authorities mentioned, “The DPRK [North Korea] dispatches thousands of highly skilled IT workers around the world to generate revenue that contributes to its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programmes, in violation of US and UN sanctions.”
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