North Korea, under Kim Jong Un, is posing an unforeseen threat to Europe, and the UK in particular: job scams.
The UK is now a popular destination for phony IT professionals sent by North Korea, also known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, according to a study published in The Guardian.
According to the article, these IT professionals are usually employed to operate remotely, which allows them to evade detection and transfer their earnings to the nation of Kim Jong-un.
The hoax IT professionals have also deployed a new tactic to threaten to leak sensitive data after being fired.
This has left companies, including elite ones like those in defence sector, in a soup.
Google reveals modus operandi of North Korea job scam
In a report earlier this month, Google said that a case came into light last year where a single North Korean employee deployed at least 12 personae in Europe and the US. This IT worker was seeking jobs in sensitive fields like the defence industry and other government sectors. Leaking data of these sectors would prove harmful to the country in general.
As per the Guardian report quoting Google’s Threat Intelligence group chief analyst John Hultquist, North Korea is targetting Europe and the UK after its plans to deploy fake workers in the US became increasingly difficult.
How does North Korea job scam work?
The research claims that “facilitators” are typically involved in the North Korean fake IT worker fraud. These are people who are physically present in the nation where the target company is located and who unwittingly employ phony employees.
These facilitators are in charge of performing routine fieldwork in a nation, such as obtaining a forged passport and supplying a physical address where laptops are supplied to the hired IT staff.
They then make these laptops accessible to the person working for North Korea, who does not typically reside in the same country as the facilitator.
