North Korea does remote work better than you

Hi! I’m Peter, CEO of Kickresume, and these career-related stories caught my attention this month — and might catch yours too.

Remote jobs are great. Flexible, global, abundant. At least, that’s what I used to think.

Lately, though, I keep hearing the same thing from all sides: landing a remote job feels less like a job hunt and more like a manhunt.

More candidates, tougher competition, fewer callbacks, and a suspicious number of "we've decided to move forward with someone else" emails.

Still, maybe it’s not you. Maybe you're not a bad candidate. 

Maybe the "excellent candidate" who beat you to it... wasn’t even real.

What if I told you that the person who ultimately got the job was actually a North Korean operative using a deepfake avatar, a stolen identity, and a fake resume?

As bizarre (and completely messed up) as it sounds — this is real.

And weirdly enough...There’s a thing or two you and I could learn from it. (Ethically. And maybe unethically, too.)

Now hiring: North Korean cyber spies

Okay, maybe you’re thinking…what the hell? And honestly, fair enough. I’m right there with you.

So let me catch you up on what’s actually going on:

There’s an entire state-sponsored ecosystem (mostly run out of North Korea) designed to get fake IT workers hired into remote tech jobs at companies in the US and Europe.

But... how, you may wonder? Well, by using deepfakes and stolen identities. Obviously. 

These people are trained, sophisticated, and sometimes, they’re better prepared than real applicants.

Which is why they often succeed — and actually get hired. 

One cybersecurity expert even said some of these fake workers would be considered top performers at most companies. Now that’s just hilarious to me.

But why would they go to all this trouble to get…employed?

It’s not for the career development, I’ll tell you that much.

Some of these fake workers are just quietly collecting the salary (or multiple salaries) they otherwise couldn’t earn, and funnel the money straight into Kim Jong Un’s illegal weapons programs.

Others infiltrate companies to steal sensitive data, drain accounts, or quietly leak trade secrets — a kind of low-effort corporate espionage with very real consequences.

And then there’s good old extortion. These operatives install malware, lock up company systems, and demand ransom payments, threatening to leak internal documents or personal data if they’re not paid.

If you’re wondering how this works in practice… it goes something like this:

1. Steal someone’s identity. Usually a real person from the US or Europe. Then they slap that name onto a resume packed with keywords like “10 years at Google” to make sure it gets picked up.

2. Build the perfect profile. They create fake LinkedIn accounts, fake portfolios, sometimes even fake company websites.

3. Get through the interview. If video’s required, they use real-time deepfake “avatars”, real-time voice manipulation or they just say their webcam’s broken. Some use AI tools to help answer questions in real time too. Others pay someone else to do the interview for them — then take over once they’re hired.

4. Fake their location. They’ll ask for a company laptop to be sent to a “local” address — usually a US-based accomplice who sets it up for remote access.

5. Log in from across the world. Using VPNs and remote desktop tools, they hide their location, match the time zone, and show up just like any other remote worker.

And just like that, they’re in — working from a laptop farm in North Korea, while their Slack status says “🌞 Good morning from Denver!”

These candidates were generated different

If all of this still sounds a little too ridiculous to be real, I don’t blame you. 

But it is.

Here are some real-life examples of real jobs and real companies, all fooled...by fake people. (How poetic🙃)

Vidoc Security, a Polish-founded, San Francisco–based tech company, was hiring its first few engineers when one candidate absolutely crushed it. He breezed through the coding tasks, finished early, and clearly knew his stuff.

Sure, there were a few quirks — like the fact he claimed to be Polish but didn’t speak any Polish, and had an oddly strong (possibly Asian?) accent. But hey, remote hiring is weird sometimes.

Then came the final non-technical interview and things got really weird. His appearance didn’t quite match his LinkedIn photo and as cofounder Klaudia dug into the details of his background, the whole story started to fall apart.

They passed on the hire, but kept second-guessing themselves.

Until it happened again.

Different name. Different country. Same uncanny valley vibe. Same voice. And this “new” guy answered every question with almost too much confidence… almost like he’d already heard them before. 

This time, they were ready. Mid-interview, the founder asked the candidate to put his hand in front of his face — a simple trick known to break most deepfake filters.

He refused. They ended the call. And yes, you can watch the cringey interaction here. 

Bonus twist: After sharing the video on LinkedIn, people pointed out the candidate looked suspiciously like a well-known Polish politician.

Turns out, that little hand trick? It’s becoming a surprisingly effective deepfake lie detector.

It also saved two other companies from hiring AI-generated impostors — and luckily for us, both caught the moment on video. 

You can watch those gloriously awkward interactions here and here.

But not everyone got that lucky.

KnowBe4 (a company that literally specializes in cybersecurity awareness) — actually hired one. The fake candidate made it through four (FOUR!!!) separate video interviews. 

Everything looked legit. References checked out. Background clear. So they sent him a company-issued Mac to get started

The moment it was received, it started loading malware.

Thankfully, KnowBe4’s internal security systems caught it and neutered the Mac within 25 minutes. Still, an investigation later revealed that the attacker had manipulated system files, transferred potentially harmful data, and executed unauthorized software.

Other companies weren’t as quick.

In one case, the fake worker came back after being fired and demanded a six-figure ransom, paid in cryptocurrency, or else the stolen data would be leaked. All via… Gmail. No joke, you can read the full story.

In the next section, I’ll show you how to spot a deepfake… or become one. (Kidding. Mostly.)

I am not liable for what you do with this information

So what can you actually do about this?

If you're hiring, here’s a quick list you might want to start with:

1. If you get a bunch of applications right after posting a job, it’s probably automation.

2. Be more diligent with identity verification.

3. In remote video interviews, insist on the camera being on.

4. Be cautious about shipping equipment to addresses that don’t match hiring documentation.

5. Ask candidates to do glitch-proofing things (e.g. cover part of their face with a hand).

6. Use AI to counter AI — there are tools for this.

And if you’re a job seeker?

Well... if you can’t beat them, become them?

You could (but shouldn’t) create a fake identity, try out the interview as your AI-enhanced alter ego, then apply again as yourself — now fully prepped and confident.

Or if you're into AI modelling, train a deepfake model that can handle the “hand in front of the face” test. You’ll be very rich. And probably very indicted.

(To be absolutely clear: this is a joke. Please don’t do any of this. Please.)

But seriously — don’t beat yourself up, because you’re not just competing with other job seekers anymore.

Sometimes, you’re up against a highly trained, state-sponsored operative who doesn’t exist.

I’m always impressed to see anyone scroll all the way down here.

And since you’re one of those people, I’m not gonna let you go empty-handed.

This time it’s a 20% discount on any Kickresume Premium subscription. Simply download our mobile app. The discount is waiting for you there.

Catch you later! 

Peter