Kraken Catches North Korean Hacker Posing As ‘Steven Smith’ Applying for Job at Crypto Exchange: Report

One of the world’s top crypto exchange platforms has reportedly caught a North Korean hacker with a fake identity to apply for a job at the firm.

In a report by CBS News, Nick Percoco – the chief security officer at Kraken – says that an individual from North Korea posing as “Steven Smith” attempted to get an IT job at the crypto exchange as a means of stealing money and information.

The person, who is on a “Do Not Hire” list, is suspected of working for North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. However, instead of dismissing the man’s application right away, Percoco says he wanted to confront him.

“We like to look the attackers right in the eyes. Some people might call it trolling as well. We call it security research…

Their job is to start employment, to steal intellectual property, steal money from companies… Take home a paycheck, and do it in a widespread way.”

During an interview with Kraken, the man was asked to present his identification card as he claimed to be from Houston. After delaying for a few minutes, he presented a screenshot of a driver’s license which said his name was “Stephen Smith” with an address 300 miles away.

According to a recent report by Fortune, Smith claimed to have a bachelor’s degree in computer science from New York University with over a decade of experience working as a software engineer at US firms such as Cisco and Kindly Human.

The United Nations estimates that North Korea makes between $250 million and $600 million annually by deceiving foreign firms into hiring its spies.

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