North Korea's 100,000-strong fake IT worker army rake in $500M a year for Kim Jong Un

Researchers at IBM X‑Force and Flare Research detail an extensive North Korean operation that recruits and places fake IT workers into Western companies to steal information and generate revenue for the regime. The report describes roles (recruiters, facilitators, collaborators, IT workers), use of falsified US identities and mentoring to win positions, common tools (OConnect/NetKey VPN, IPMsg, heavy reliance on Google Translate), and indicators and mitigation strategies employers can use to detect fraudulent candidates and insider risk.