KnowBe4 is sounding the alarm about a North Korean fake employee hiring scam. KnowBe4, which specializes in security awareness training and simulated phishing platforms, accidentally hired a North Korean “fake employee,” but they realized their mistake after the worker started to access the laptop that was sent to them in unusual ways. According to KnowBe4, access was shut down within 25 minutes of the first security alert. No illegal access was gained, and no data was lost, compromised, or exfiltrated on any KnowBe4 systems.
To make other companies aware of this issue, KnowBe4 has introduced a new whitepaper titled “North Korean Fake Employees Are Everywhere! How To Protect Your Organization.” The document details what the North Korean fake employee industry is like, shares many of the signs to look for, and discusses many ways organizations can update their hiring policies to prevent hiring fake employees.
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In a recent quote, Stu Sjouwerman, CEO, KnowBe4, said, “There are common signs of this fake employee hiring scheme both during and after the hiring process. Every organization should educate all employees involved in the hiring process about the risks and consider various mitigation tactics such as updating the organization’s hiring process to include asking the candidate to submit fingerprints for identity verification purposes, threat model the organization’s hiring process, and more. We were inspired to share our experience with this unfortunate situation to bring awareness to how pervasive this situation is and to use it as a warning to help protect other organizations from falling victim.”
