At least 10 alleged U.S.-based facilitators have been federally charged, including one active-duty member of the U.S. Army, for their alleged roles in hosting laptop farms, laundering payments and moving proceeds through shell companies. At least six other alleged U.S. facilitators have been identified in court documents but not named.
the problem was probably more about being suspected as an operative for north korea.
though i wish i knew what methods they used to make the guy appear like perfect hire if he actually is an operative, maybe it might be useful information to actually just get a job. Getting a job nowdays feels more like trying to “steal” yourself a place in society rather than just being part of society. Having a job is a privilege.
There’s the real black market niche I’d be willing to buy into.
“Pssst, hey buddy, I got this high paying job with good health plans, lots of vacation, and 100% remote… The only downside is that…”. “I GIVE NO FUCKS! JUST TELL ME WHO I HAVE TO KILL!”. “Woah there bud, we just need you to send some cash to North Korea and give us 5 stars on…”
“I WILL KILL ANYONE WHO GIVES YOU LESS THAN ALL OF THE STARS!”
i can even kind of think of how to manage something like that, it would just work on only with 100% remote work and would also require quite a lot of cooperation, competency and trust from the clients. and it would still require you to “acquire the goods”, as in get a job. But then you could share it with other people. So in the end multiple people would be pretending to be one person, but since the load is shared each could do multiple different “persons”.
From what I’ve seen in other articles about the same case, it’s basically nothing special. The North Korean applies under a false identity that isn’t associated with North Korea, and they have (or at least claim to have) relevant education and experience that would make them good fits for roles like programming, then they apply for remote jobs where they can continually work at one job without having to go in and interact with people face to face.
I kind of doubt the problem is being suspected of being an operative, though, so much as ex filtration of corporate secrets and potentially falling afoul of sanctions against North Korea if they continue to employ someone in their company once they have a reasonable suspicion that the person is a North Korean national working under a false identity. They would be helping the North Korean government to maintain a steady inflow of foreign currency that they need, which I’m sure could land them in trouble. Aside from that liability, I would imagine they would beore concerned about company IP and tratedsecrets this employee would have access to being available to the DPRK to do what they will with, as well as others in the government being able to use their credentials to potentially access and compromise systems on the company’s network that this employee could access.