Detect and Stop North Korean IT Worker Infiltration

North Korea has quietly developed one of the most persistent and sophisticated cyber-enabled revenue schemes in the world: sending operatives abroad under stolen or falsified identities to work remotely for U.S. companies. These individuals appear on paper to be U.S.-based IT contractors and developers, but in reality, they’re funneling income and access back to the North Korean regime.

Recent reports from Microsoft and CrowdStrike confirm what many security leaders already suspected: infiltration has rapidly expanded into hundreds or thousands of companies across diverse industries. These workers use carefully crafted personas, fraudulent documentation, and sophisticated identity obfuscation tactics masking to pose as legitimate U.S.-based employees. Once inside, they drain payroll budgets and introduce security risks that can lead to far greater damage, including insider attacks and nation-state espionage.

Fortunately, Verosint can detect these threats and enable organizations to protect your workforce and secure your intellectual property from N. Korean infiltration.

How They Get In

The falsified N. Korean worker playbook is relatively consistent:

• Identity Masquerading – North Korean operatives purchase or steal U.S. identities to appear legitimate.
  
• VPN & Geolocation Spoofing – Tools like Astrill VPN are used to allow workers located overseas to spoof a U.S. IP address.
  
• Social Engineering – They forge résumés, references, and sometimes deepfaked interviews.
  
• Scale – Investigations show that hundreds of companies—from startups to large enterprises—have already unknowingly onboarded North Korean IT workers, and the numbers are growing rapidly.
  

How Verosint Detects Fraudulent Workers

Conventional fraud tools, IAM solutions, and background checks are not designed to catch the increased sophistication of N. Korean identity-layer deception. That’s where Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR), and specifically Verosint, comes in.

Verosint applies a layered ITDR approach to uncover fraudulent workers hiding in plain sight:

• VPN & Anonymization Tool Detection: Verosint can flag when suspicious VPNs like Astrill VPN, often favored by North Korean operators, are being used to access company resources under the guise of a U.S.-based employee.
  
• IP & Geolocation Analysis: Our platform cross-references IP metadata with known geolocation patterns. If a supposed “California-based contractor” is repeatedly logging in from Asia—masked or unmasked—or from a laptop farm from a co-conspirator located in the U.S.
  
• Phone & Identity Risk Signals: Fraudulent workers often rely on VoIP numbers, burner phones, or recycled identities. Verosint’s behavioral analysis detects anomalies that expose fake or high-risk identities and devices.
  
• Behavioral Risk Monitoring: Beyond login data, Verosint analyzes patterns across devices, session timing, and authentication behavior—surfacing red flags such as multiple accounts tied to a single device, or unusual work hours inconsistent with a claimed U.S. time zone.
  

The Risks for Companies Across Industries

A growing number of companies and industries are now at risk of fraudulent worker infiltration for the following reasons:

1. Remote-first hiring models make it easy for foreign actors to slip through.
   
2. High demand for developers and IT workers across industries means seemingly qualified candidates are more likely to be fast-tracked, sometimes without sufficient validation.
   
3. Identity-based worker abuse not only drains payroll but introduces dangerous insider threats to source code, training data, and intellectual property.

Using Identity Security to Stop Hidden Threats

North Korean IT worker infiltration is no longer a hypothetical—it’s a validated widespread threat. Traditional tools can’t detect this form of fraud, but Verosint can. By identifying VPN abuse, geolocation inconsistencies, laptop farms, fraudulent phone and identity accounts, and suspicious behavioral signals, Verosint empowers organizations to protect their workforce and secure their intellectual property.

If your organization is serious about protecting itself from identity-based threats like these, it’s time to talk. Contact Verosint to learn how ITDR can safeguard your company.