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
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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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