North Korean hackers posing as devs exposed with ‘I Hate Kim Jong Un’ test

A crypto startup looking to onboard new talent is attempting to weed out possible North Korean spies with an ingenious test that asks candidates to say one simple thing: “Fuck North Korea.”

According to g8keep co-founder Harrison Leggio — known as Pop Punk on X (formerly Twitter) — North Korean engineers can be outed by asking them to say something negative about North Korea and Kim Jong Un.

To demonstrate this, he shared an interaction with a potential recruit applying for a developer role. When asked to say the words “I hate Kim Jong Un, Fuck North Korea,” the potential recruit “immediately” deleted the chat.

Users on X are already joking about using the North Korea litmus test in their own online chats. Software engineer Laurence E. Day said, “This is unironically best practice for interactions with technical folk in crypto.”

Another user posted, “Brb making this the official entrance policy,” while one said, “Finally, someone has found the purest form of defense against North Korean blockchain exploiters.”

North Korea wants to infiltrate remote job roles

PC Mag reports that tech startup Cinder has seen multiple applications for remote jobs that it suspects were submitted by North Korean hackers.

Protos previously reported that North Korean hackers targeted a US-based tech firm and accessed its crypto clientele last year. Cybercriminals have also pretended to be journalists and South Korean government officials to lure unsuspecting victims into clicking phishing emails that drain their crypto.

Read more: Korean gov’t officials targeted by North’s ‘journalist’ crypto hackers

Indeed, in 2022 US government agencies published warnings that IT workers from North Korea may be signing up for remote working jobs using false credentials.

Authorities said, “The DPRK [North Korea] dispatches thousands of highly skilled IT workers around the world to generate revenue that contributes to its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programmes, in violation of US and UN sanctions.”

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