Pretends to be a hacker candidate, gets hired, and tries to hack the company in the first week

A North Korean hacker was hired by American company KnowBe4 after posing as a supposed software engineer looking for work. He tried to hack into the company’s systems in the early days of the jobThe curious story emerged last Thursday (25).

Security solutions provider operating in 11 countries selected the fake expert’s resume among other applications looking for a new professional for its IT team. Passed all selection steps including background checks, references and four video conference interviews.

Since there was no apparent problem, the fake IT engineer, whose identity was not disclosed, was hired. Despite, Suspicious activity was detected originating from the workstation sent to itwhen the person tries to install malware on the company’s system.

Analysis of the incident showed that the attempt to upload malicious files “may have been intentional by the user”, and the report also noted “suspicions that it may have been a person”. Insider threat/nation state actor”.

AI-enhanced photography

After the incident which did not result in any data breachAccording to the company’s CEO, Stu Sjouwerman, the contractors claimed that the alleged engineer was a valid but stolen IDbased in the United States. The hacker used AI to alter the photo of the document in an attempt to trick them.

Cybercriminal according to company made the change from a database image with AIcreating the fake photo. In this way, he managed to fool those responsible for the election process, who at no point suspected fraud.

KnowBe4 will take measures to organize recruitment more tightly and warned other companies about the high level of sophistication of creating fake identities using AIThe case is being analyzed by cybersecurity firm Mandiant and investigated by the FBI.