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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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

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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