You know what we should do is set up laptop farms and scam North Korean companies. We could infiltrate their largest 100 corporations and steal their assets. Does anyone have a link to top largest NK companies?
This leads to some interesting questions. Were the people on the North Korean side working given access to more information about the world than the average citizen?
I would have to imagine they have to know more just to be able to interact normally with other people. I would think at some point in a meeting a casual conversation about current events would come up and if they did not know much about the outside world it would be a very weird (and likely raising some red flags) conversation.
Or were these interactions only ever over text, so no camera or anything which would help obfuscate that. It would also minimize the chance of there being those more causal human conversations.
Maybe they're not completely ignorant of the outside world but believing that that's the only way they would continue to isolate helps us feel better about ourselves?
I don't think that many Americans deny how harsh and repressive the regime is, but at the same time there's a mountain of evidence that NK controls its population's access to information or the Internet.
>You're an American office worker with a college education and one of your coworkers just asked how you feel about [recent event]. Summarize the nature of the event in its cultural context and offer an opinion on it typical of someone in your position.
It would be interesting to see how much of these folks accepted lower salaries than the other applicants. Then the justice system could maybe link the HR departments with fault as well.
Isn’t this only a problem if you treat your employees like (anonymous) resources? I might be ignorant here but in what world do you not realize that someone is a North Korean spy after a couple of 1on1s?
Employ someone, have them meet with the team they work with, either in person or at a controlled office, and have team meetings with them.
That proves the person you know was in the country you expect them to be, and eliminates the whole "local person pretends but the work is done by remote". The meetings mean they are available when you expect them to be.
Now sure they could have somehow got to the expected country to do that original laptop pickup, but you've got bigger problems if they are a spy and living where you expect them to be, and things like turning up to office every day for 8-6 isn't going to stop them.
all of our identities are for sale and can be used to open bank, brokerage and crypto accounts and we’ll never be notified of this. can be used to fill out employment documents
and they can pass the private sector leetcode problems better and more relentlessly while crafting a fake resume to more neatly fit the job description, while leveraging Americas biases to physically look like the candidate they want
nobody is getting hit with sanctions violations, but there isn’t a safe harbor added either
You know what we should do is set up laptop farms and scam North Korean companies. We could infiltrate their largest 100 corporations and steal their assets. Does anyone have a link to top largest NK companies?
I'm surprised the other commenters don't realize this is sarcasm.
Apparently Kim personally, single-handedly established all factories after the Korean War. Pretty amazing dude.
Genuine question: what do you think this would accomplish, other than a sense of petty revenge?
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This must be a joke, right? Their largest "companies" produce nukes and potatoes, how and why would you steal that?
Also, it's all one "company" - the Communist State.
So what you're saying is the North Korea is uniquely qualified to take potato guns to the next level?
Potato nukes, even
This leads to some interesting questions. Were the people on the North Korean side working given access to more information about the world than the average citizen?
I would have to imagine they have to know more just to be able to interact normally with other people. I would think at some point in a meeting a casual conversation about current events would come up and if they did not know much about the outside world it would be a very weird (and likely raising some red flags) conversation.
Or were these interactions only ever over text, so no camera or anything which would help obfuscate that. It would also minimize the chance of there being those more causal human conversations.
Maybe they're not completely ignorant of the outside world but believing that that's the only way they would continue to isolate helps us feel better about ourselves?
I don't think that many Americans deny how harsh and repressive the regime is, but at the same time there's a mountain of evidence that NK controls its population's access to information or the Internet.
No need to be complicated. Just ask about Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un.
>How do you feel about [recent event]?
>You're an American office worker with a college education and one of your coworkers just asked how you feel about [recent event]. Summarize the nature of the event in its cultural context and offer an opinion on it typical of someone in your position.
"Oh, I don't want to talk politics at all, I just want to treat work as work"
or other variations of it. Good enough for a few months.
It would be interesting to see how much of these folks accepted lower salaries than the other applicants. Then the justice system could maybe link the HR departments with fault as well.
They could just be H1B.
They busted some North Korean IT workers but how will they prevent this in the future? What are US companies doing to protect themselves?
iirc all you have to do is ask them if they think kim jong un looks fat
Isn’t this only a problem if you treat your employees like (anonymous) resources? I might be ignorant here but in what world do you not realize that someone is a North Korean spy after a couple of 1on1s?
Employ someone, have them meet with the team they work with, either in person or at a controlled office, and have team meetings with them.
That proves the person you know was in the country you expect them to be, and eliminates the whole "local person pretends but the work is done by remote". The meetings mean they are available when you expect them to be.
Now sure they could have somehow got to the expected country to do that original laptop pickup, but you've got bigger problems if they are a spy and living where you expect them to be, and things like turning up to office every day for 8-6 isn't going to stop them.
nothing, they won’t
all of our identities are for sale and can be used to open bank, brokerage and crypto accounts and we’ll never be notified of this. can be used to fill out employment documents
and they can pass the private sector leetcode problems better and more relentlessly while crafting a fake resume to more neatly fit the job description, while leveraging Americas biases to physically look like the candidate they want
nobody is getting hit with sanctions violations, but there isn’t a safe harbor added either
the whole structure is stupid
This is like the Iraqi WMDs of the white collar world.
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Misleading. Release from June.
Some discussion at the time:
US Government takes down major North Korean 'remote IT workers' operation
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44428422
Action comes after Bloomberg News reported[1] on this issue.
[1]: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-07-24/north-kor...