A company was hacked after it hired a North Korean cyber criminal posing as an IT contractor. The unnamed company fell victim to a new North Korean hacking tactic, according to cybersecurity company Secureworks, which investigated the incident. A North Korean cyber criminal posing as an IT contractor was hired for a fixed-term contract by the firm, which is based either in the UK, US or Australia. Secureworks is keeping the company's location general in order to protect the company.
. Read more from Sky News:AI-generated child pornography increasing at 'chilling' rateBudget 2024: What could Chancellor announce?Mayor bans cactus plants in buildings Although it is thought those workers' salaries were being used to fund the North Korean regime, this latest incident, and others like it, mark 'a serious escalation' of risk for companies, said Mr Pilling.
published a list of tell-tale signs that a new contractor is not who they say they are and is, in fact, an agent for the North Korean government. Some of those include being inconsistent with the spelling of their name, their nationality, location, experience and online presence or refusing to appear on camera.
warns that people who request prepayment but then fail to complete tasks, or just generally fail to do the job, could also be suspicious. Attempts to re-route corporate IT equipment sent to the contractor's home, routing paychecks to money transfer services and accessing the corporate network with unauthorised remote access tools should also be red flags.