A small workforce of North Korean IT staff — linked to a $680,000 crypto hack in June — has been utilizing Google merchandise and even renting computer systems to infiltrate crypto initiatives, in accordance with screenshots from one of many staff’ units.
In an X submit from ZachXBT on Wednesday, the crypto sleuth shared a uncommon look into the workings of a North Korean (DPRK) hacker. The data got here from “an unnamed supply” who was in a position to compromise considered one of their units.
North Korean-linked staff had been answerable for $1.4 billion exploit of crypto trade Bitbit in February and have siphoned hundreds of thousands from crypto protocols over time.
The knowledge exhibits that the small workforce of six North Korean IT staff shares at the very least 31 faux identities, acquiring the whole lot from authorities IDs and cellphone numbers to buying LinkedIn and UpWork accounts to masks their true identities and land crypto jobs.
One of the employees supposedly interviewed for a full-stack engineer place at Polygon Labs, whereas different proof confirmed scripted interview responses during which they claimed to have expertise at NFT market OpenSea and blockchain oracle supplier Chainlink.
Google, distant working software program
The leaked paperwork present the North Korean IT staff secured “blockchain developer” and “sensible contract engineer” roles on freelance platforms like Upwork, then used distant entry software program like AnyDesk to perform the work for unsuspecting employers. They additionally used VPNs to cover their places.
Google Drive exports and Chrome profiles confirmed they used Google instruments to handle schedules, duties and budgets, speaking in English whereas utilizing Google’s Korean-to-English translation software.
One spreadsheet confirmed the IT staff spent a mixed $1,489.8 on bills in May to hold out their operations.
North Korean IT staff tied to latest $680,000 crypto hack
The North Koreans typically use Payoneer to transform fiat into crypto for his or her work, and a kind of pockets addresses —“0x78e1a” — is “intently tied” to the $680,000 exploit on fan-token market Favrr in June 2025, ZachXBT mentioned.
Related: Crypto crime unit with $250M in seizures expands with Binance
At the time, ZachXBT alleged the venture’s chief know-how officer, generally known as “Alex Hong,” together with different builders, had been DPRK staff in disguise.
The proof additionally supplied perception into their areas of curiosity. One search requested whether or not ERC-20 tokens could possibly be deployed on Solana, whereas one other sought data on the highest AI growth corporations in Europe.
Crypto companies have to do extra due diligence
ZachXBT known as on crypto and tech companies to do extra homework on potential hires, noting that many of those operations aren’t extremely subtle, however the quantity of purposes typically results in hiring groups changing into negligent.
He added {that a} lack of collaboration between tech companies and freelance platforms contributes to the issue.
Last month, the US Treasury took issues into its personal arms, sanctioning two folks and 4 entities concerned in a North Korea-run IT employee ring infiltrating crypto companies.
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