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SECURITY FIRM ACCIDENTALLY HIRES NORTH KOREAN HACKER, DID NOT KNOWBE4SECURITY
FIRM ACCIDENTALLY HIRES NORTH KOREAN HACKER, DID NOT KNOWBE4

A software engineer hired for an internal IT AI team immediately became an
insider threat by loading malware onto his workstation.

Elizabeth Montalbano, Contributing Writer

July 25, 2024

4 Min Read
Source: Den Rise via ShutterStock


A security firm recently hired a software engineer for its internal AI team that
turned out to be a North Korean threat actor, who immediately began loading
malware to his company-issued workstation.

KnowBe4, which provides security awareness and training, conducted standard
pre-hiring background checks for the employee and four separate video-conference
interviews with him before his hiring, Stu Sjouwerman, KnowBe4's founder, shared
in a blog post about the situation. The company also verified that the person
interviewed was the same one in the photo sent in with a resume.

The checks came back clean and the candidate for the position ("principal
software engineer") appeared credible and qualified, though later the company
realized he was using a stolen identity and his photo was AI-enhanced.

Once the verification and hiring process was complete, KnowBe4 sent the new
employee, who is referred to in KnowBe4's post as "XXXX," his Mac workstation,
"and the moment it was received, it immediately started to load malware,"
Sjouwerman wrote.

"On July 15, 2024, a series of suspicious activities were detected on the user
beginning at 9:55pm EST," he detailed. "When these alerts came in, KnowBe4's
security operations center (SOC) team reached out to the user to inquire about
the anomalous activity and possible cause. XXXX responded to the SOC that he was
following steps on his router guide to troubleshoot a speed issue and that it
may have caused a compromise."

What the employee was really doing, however, was performing various actions to
manipulate session history files, transferring potentially harmful files, and
executing unauthorized software using a Raspberry Pi. KnowBe4's SOC attempted to
get him on a call to investigate further, but he said he was unavailable and
"later became unresponsive." By 10:20am, the SOC had quarantined XXXX's device.

KnowBe4 shared the data it collected about the employee and his activities with
cybersecurity firm Mandiant and the FBI, to corroborate the company's initial
findings. The company eventually discovered that XXXX was a fake IT worker from
North Korea, and an FBI investigation is still ongoing.


"IT CAN HAPPEN TO ANYONE"

Sjouwerman stressed to customers that no data breach occurred due to the
activity, as security tooling blocked the malware before it was executed. His
aim in sharing what happened at his company is to provide "an organizational
learning moment," he said.

"Do we have egg on our face? Yes," he wrote. "And I am sharing that lesson with
you."

KnowBe4 grants new employees' accounts only limited permissions for proceeding
through the new hire onboarding process and training, with access to only
necessary apps such an an email inbox, Slack, and Zoom. This means that XXXX
never had access to any customer data, KnowBe4's private networks, cloud
infrastructure, code, or any KnowBe4 confidential information, Sjouwerman said.

"No illegal access was gained, and no data was lost, compromised, or exfiltrated
on any KnowBe4 systems," Sjouwerman wrote. However, "if it can happen to us, it
can happen to almost anyone," he added.

Indeed, North Korean threat actors are notorious for engaging in successful
cybercriminal activities by posing as credible IT workers. Last October, the
Department of Justice warned that the freelance IT market was being flooded by
operatives working on behalf of the North Korean government, urging caution to
companies when hiring new workers. The department found that these workers are
quietly directing their earnings to the government's sanctions-ridden nation's
nuclear weapons program.

“Most of these individuals who attempt to obtain employment are not physically
located in the US," Sjouwerman explained. "In order for them to conduct work,
they require a US location for the equipment to be sent. There are small
networks set up at drop locations where a US-based individual will turn on the
received computers and configure them to be accessed remotely. The remote worker
will then connect into the laptop farm network, and from there remote into the
received device. This will cause security and access logs for that person to
show up as being US-based and coming from the correct device.”


HOW NOT TO HIRE A NORTH KOREAN HACKER

KnowBe4 has made "several process changes" to hiring to help ensure any
potential bad actor will be detected earlier, according to the post. In the US,
for example, the company now will only ship new employee workstations to a
nearby UPS shop and require a picture ID to obtain it.

Other process improvements that organizations can make are to ensure all
background and reference checks are verified for inconsistencies and properly
vetted; review and strengthen access controls and authentication processes; and
conduct security awareness training for employees to stress social-engineering
tactics used by threat actors.

The company also made recommendations so other organizations can avoid a similar
scenario, including scanning remote devices for any suspicious access or
activity; improving vetting and resume scanning for inconsistencies; and
checking for red flags, like a laptop shipping address that's different from
where the person is supposed to live and work.

Other red flags to look out for in potential employees include the use of VoIP
numbers and/or lack of digital footprint for provided contact information, and
any discrepancies in addresses, personal information, or date of birth across
different sources. A remote employee's sophisticated use of VPNs or virtual
machines should raise an alarm.




ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

Elizabeth Montalbano, Contributing Writer



Elizabeth Montalbano is a freelance writer, journalist, and therapeutic writing
mentor with more than 25 years of professional experience. Her areas of
expertise include technology, business, and culture. Elizabeth previously lived
and worked as a full-time journalist in Phoenix, San Francisco, and New York
City; she currently resides in a village on the southwest coast of Portugal. In
her free time, she enjoys surfing, hiking with her dogs, traveling, playing
music, yoga, and cooking.


See more from Elizabeth Montalbano, Contributing Writer
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