Sam Kessler, CoinDesk’s deputy managing editor for tech, and Taylor Monahan, co-founder of MyEtherWallet, dive into the alarming infiltration of the crypto industry by North Korean operatives. They discuss how these 'IT' workers use deception to bypass hiring processes and the ethical dilemmas facing companies unknowingly employing them. The conversation highlights security vulnerabilities, red flags to watch for, and personal stories that reveal the unique tactics deployed by these hackers. They also reflect on industry improvements and the ongoing fight to secure crypto protocols.
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question_answer ANECDOTE
Truflation's North Korean Employees
Truflation's founder, Stefan Rust, hired a "Japanese" developer named Ryuhei who exhibited odd behavior, like missing calls due to a nonexistent earthquake.
Ryuhei's sudden accent drop and subsequent investigation revealed that he and four other Truflation employees were North Korean agents.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Truflation Hack
During a fact-checking call, Stefan Rust revealed to Sam Kessler that Truflation had just been hacked.
$5 million was drained from Truflation's wallets shortly after discovering their North Korean employees.
question_answer ANECDOTE
The Amsterdam Developer
An investigator asked a suspected North Korean developer about Amsterdam, where he claimed to live, and the developer unexpectedly asked if the interviewer spoke Dutch.
After abruptly leaving the call, the developer returned later, refusing video and seemingly replaced by a different person prepared to speak Dutch.
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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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