How North Koreans Infiltrated the Crypto Industry to Fund the Regime - Ep. 715

The crypto community is facing a new kind of threat—North Korean devs are infiltrating crypto companies to steal millions and funnel funds back to the regime in order to bypass sanctions. In this episode, Sam Kessler, CoinDesk’s deputy managing editor for tech and protocols, and Taylor Monahan, security at MetaMask, explain how North Korea has embedded its operatives into the crypto space, the red flags companies should watch for, and what these hackers are doing once inside crypto firms. Plus, they share their most interesting stories about how these hackers have gotten hired at crypto companies and the red flags the industry should know about. Show highlights: What Sam found in his investigation about North Koreans infiltrating the industry How Taylor has found that this is a recurring issue Why Sam and Taylor refer to these infiltrated workers as ‘IT’ workers The most interesting stories that Sam and Taylor have discovered The trends in the hiring process that lead to North Koreans being hired and also what the big red flags are How “easy it is to de-anonymize” addresses and transactions in blockchains What assets and networks these workers often use to get paid How, after infiltrating a company, those projects get hacked How to deal with a situation in which you’ve already hired North Koreans How to protect a protocol from another type of North Korean hack: by hacking groups Whether the industry is getting better at security Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com Thank you to our sponsors! Polkadot Mantle Guests: Sam Kessler, CoinDesk's deputy managing editor for tech and protocols CoinDesk: How North Korea Infiltrated the Crypto Industry Taylor Monahan, Co-Founder of MyEtherWallet Previous appearances on Unchained: The QuadrigaCX Case: Taylor Monahan on What We Know From the Blockchain MyCrypto's Taylor Monahan on Why She's Not a Fan of ICOs Links Previous coverage of Unchained on North Korea: Why North Korea Is Interested in Cryptocurrency Yeonmi Park on Why Doing Business With North Korea Is Like Buying a Ticket to a Concentration Camp Others: DL News: North Korean hackers are infiltrating crypto job boards in a ‘quiet war’ that rakes in $600m FBI PSA: North Korea Aggressively Targeting Crypto Industry with Well-Disguised Social Engineering Attacks Chainalysis: 2024 Crypto Crime Mid-year Update Part 1: Cybercrime Climbs as Exchange Thieves and Ransomware Attackers Grow Bolder Funds Stolen from Crypto Platforms Fall More Than 50% in 2023, but Hacking Remains a Significant Threat as Number of Incidents Rises Russian and North Korean Cyberattack Infrastructure Converge: New Hacking Data Raises National Security Concerns ZachXBT: How Lazarus Group laundered $200M from 25+ crypto hacks to fiat from 2020–2023 Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 01:59 Sam's findings on North Korean workers infiltrating crypto projects 04:04 Taylor on the recurring nature of the issue 09:05 Why they’re referred to as ‘IT’ workers 16:17 Most interesting infiltration stories 34:16 Hiring trends and red flags for North Korean operatives 44:02 How easy it is to de-anonymize blockchain transactions 51:05 Assets and networks used for payment 54:06 How infiltrated companies end up getting hacked 58:36 What to do if you've already hired North Korean operatives 1:00:21 How to protect a protocol from being hacked 1:06:22 Is the industry improving in security? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices