North Korean Operatives Use Deepfakes In IT Job Interviews
DARKReading, Wednesday, April 23rd, 2025
Use of synthetic identities by malicious employment candidates is yet another way state-sponsored actors are trying to game the hiring process and infiltrate Western organizations.
North Korean IT workers are using deepfake technology to create synthetic identities for online job interviews aimed at securing remote work. This identity manipulation is part of ongoing state-sponsored employment scams aimed at infiltrating US and other organizations globally for malicious intent.
Talent acquisition and cybersecurity communities are reporting a recent surge in job candidates using real-time deepfakes during job interviews as a way to hide their real identities from potential employers, researchers at Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 reported in a recent blog post. The researchers subsequently discovered that it takes little more than an hour and no prior experience to create a real-time deepfake using readily available tools and inexpensive consumer hardware