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Rubrik: How North Korean IT Workers Infiltrate U.S. Companies

Rubrik
10/08/2026
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Then I dove into the problem and went, oh crap, we'd hire one. We're all doing remote interview, remote hiring, and they were actually good engineers. That's what they were. And I walked away going, we don't have a good way to stop this problem right now. We really don't. There's thousands of them, you know? And COVID gave them the perfect environment. This didn't start with COVID, but the pandemic enabled the IT worker scheme to spread like, well, a pandemic. Honestly, I've yet to find a company that has told me they haven't unintentionally hired a North Korean IT worker. Just, it happened. It slipped through the cracks. Because by the way, people didn't really understand that this was a thing. When I first heard about North Korean IT workers, it sounded far-fetched. I've been doing this for a very long time, and the IT worker problem is super weird. It's exceedingly strange. I remember telling people, IT workers in a room, and nobody knew what the heck I was talking about. When I talk about it now, everybody's already had an experience with it. It didn't sound like it was something that was really happening. And it took me a few cases before I truly understood how real and how significant and serious this was. This is employment fraud from a state tied to an intelligence service. A few Fortune 500 organization CISOs that have told me they don't believe that they've hired any North Korean IT workers. My assumption is that they just weren't made aware of it.

TL;DR

  • North Korean state-sponsored IT workers have infiltrated thousands of U.S. companies by posing as skilled remote engineers, exploiting the shift to fully remote hiring.
  • The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically accelerated the scheme by normalizing remote interviews and eliminating in-person identity verification steps.
  • Nearly every company the speaker has engaged with has unintentionally hired a North Korean IT worker — Fortune 500 denials likely reflect unawareness, not immunity.

Summary

This short-form clip from Rubrik's 'To Catch a Thief' series features a cybersecurity expert recounting how North Korean state-sponsored IT workers have quietly infiltrated thousands of U.S. companies through remote hiring practices. The speaker describes an initial disbelief that quickly gave way to alarm upon investigating real cases — noting that these individuals were genuinely skilled engineers who passed remote interviews and blended seamlessly into distributed workforces. The COVID-19 pandemic is identified as a critical accelerant, normalizing fully remote hiring and eliminating in-person verification steps that might have caught fraudulent identities. The speaker reveals that virtually every company they've spoken with has unintentionally hired a North Korean IT worker, and that Fortune 500 CISOs who deny it are likely simply unaware. Framed as employment fraud orchestrated by a state intelligence service, the clip underscores that this is not a fringe threat — it is a widespread, systemic vulnerability with serious national security implications, and one for which most organizations currently lack adequate defenses.

Chapters

0:00 - Initial Disbelief and Realization
0:19 - COVID as an Accelerant
0:29 - Widespread Infiltration Confirmed
1:10 - State-Sponsored Fraud Defined

Key Quotes

0:02 "Then I dove into the problem and went, oh crap, we'd hire one."
0:19 "COVID gave them the perfect environment."
1:10 "This is employment fraud from a state tied to an intelligence service."
1:13 "A few Fortune 500 organization CISOs that have told me they don't believe that they've hired any North Korean IT workers. My assumption is that they just weren't made aware of it."

FAQ

How did North Korean IT workers successfully get hired by U.S. companies?

They presented as skilled, low-maintenance remote engineers who performed well in remote interviews. The widespread adoption of fully remote hiring during and after the COVID-19 pandemic removed in-person verification steps, making it significantly easier for fraudulent identities to slip through.

Are large enterprises like Fortune 500 companies also affected?

According to the speaker, yes — several Fortune 500 CISOs have claimed they haven't hired North Korean IT workers, but the speaker's assessment is that they simply haven't been made aware of it yet, not that they are actually immune.


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