ChainCatcher reported that according to CoinDesk, more than a dozen cryptocurrency companies have unknowingly hired IT employees from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), including mature blockchain projects such as Injective, ZeroLend, Fantom, Sushi, Yearn Finance, and Cosmos Hub. These workers used fake IDs, successfully passed interviews, passed background checks, and provided real work experience.
Hiring North Korean workers is illegal in the United States and other countries that have sanctioned North Korea, and multiple companies have hired North Korean IT employees and subsequently been hacked. “Everyone is trying to filter these people out,” said Zaki Manian, a prominent blockchain developer who inadvertently hired two North Korean IT employees to help develop the Cosmos Hub blockchain in 2021.
U.S. authorities have recently stepped up warnings that North Korean information technology (IT) workers are infiltrating tech companies and using the proceeds to fund a nuclear weapons program. An investigation shows that North Korean job seekers are particularly active and frequent in targeting cryptocurrency companies — successfully landing interviews, passing background checks, and even showing an impressive history of code contributions on the open-source software repository GitHub.
