How North Koreans Infiltrated the Crypto Industry to Fund the Regime - Ep. 715
Unchained
Infiltration and Deception in Crypto
This chapter explores the complex tactics used by North Korean operatives to infiltrate the crypto industry, focusing on social engineering hacks. It also highlights the collaborative efforts of researchers and journalists to trace these threats and the need for vigilance in hiring practices.
The crypto community is facing a new kind of threat—North Korean devs are infiltrating crypto companies to steal millions and funnel funds back to the regime in order to bypass sanctions.
In this episode, Sam Kessler, CoinDesk’s deputy managing editor for tech and protocols, and Taylor Monahan, security at MetaMask, explain how North Korea has embedded its operatives into the crypto space, the red flags companies should watch for, and what these hackers are doing once inside crypto firms.
Plus, they share their most interesting stories about how these hackers have gotten hired at crypto companies and the red flags the industry should know about.
Show highlights:
- What Sam found in his investigation about North Koreans infiltrating the industry
- How Taylor has found that this is a recurring issue
- Why Sam and Taylor refer to these infiltrated workers as ‘IT’ workers
- The most interesting stories that Sam and Taylor have discovered
- The trends in the hiring process that lead to North Koreans being hired and also what the big red flags are
- How “easy it is to de-anonymize” addresses and transactions in blockchains
- What assets and networks these workers often use to get paid
- How, after infiltrating a company, those projects get hacked
- How to deal with a situation in which you’ve already hired North Koreans
- How to protect a protocol from another type of North Korean hack: by hacking groups
- Whether the industry is getting better at security
Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com
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Guests:
- Sam Kessler, CoinDesk's deputy managing editor for tech and protocols
- CoinDesk: How North Korea Infiltrated the Crypto Industry
- Taylor Monahan, Co-Founder of MyEtherWallet
- Previous appearances on Unchained:
- The QuadrigaCX Case: Taylor Monahan on What We Know From the Blockchain
- MyCrypto's Taylor Monahan on Why She's Not a Fan of ICOs
Links
- Previous coverage of Unchained on North Korea:
- Why North Korea Is Interested in Cryptocurrency
- Yeonmi Park on Why Doing Business With North Korea Is Like Buying a Ticket to a Concentration Camp
Others:
- DL News: North Korean hackers are infiltrating crypto job boards in a ‘quiet war’ that rakes in $600m
- FBI PSA: North Korea Aggressively Targeting Crypto Industry with Well-Disguised Social Engineering Attacks
- Chainalysis:
- 2024 Crypto Crime Mid-year Update Part 1: Cybercrime Climbs as Exchange Thieves and Ransomware Attackers Grow Bolder
- Funds Stolen from Crypto Platforms Fall More Than 50% in 2023, but Hacking Remains a Significant Threat as Number of Incidents Rises
- Russian and North Korean Cyberattack Infrastructure Converge: New Hacking Data Raises National Security Concerns
- ZachXBT: How Lazarus Group laundered $200M from 25+ crypto hacks to fiat from 2020–2023
Timestamps:
- 00:00 Intro
- 01:59 Sam's findings on North Korean workers infiltrating crypto projects
- 04:04 Taylor on the recurring nature of the issue
- 09:05 Why they’re referred to as ‘IT’ workers
- 16:17 Most interesting infiltration stories
- 34:16 Hiring trends and red flags for North Korean operatives
- 44:02 How easy it is to de-anonymize blockchain transactions
- 51:05 Assets and networks used for payment
- 54:06 How infiltrated companies end up getting hacked
- 58:36 What to do if you've already hired North Korean operatives
- 1:00:21 How to protect a protocol from being hacked
- 1:06:22 Is the industry improving in security?
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