Security agencies: North Korean agents are found to be infiltrating as many as 15% to 20% of crypto companies.

According to Pablo Sabbatella, a member of the Security Alliance and founder of the Web3 auditing firm opsek, North Korea's infiltration of the crypto industry is "far beyond what anyone imagined." Speaking at the Devconnect conference, Sabbatella stated that North Korean agents are infiltrated into as many as 15% to 20% of crypto companies. He estimates that 30% to 40% of all job applications received by crypto companies are attempts by North Korean agents to infiltrate these organizations. He warned that if these estimates are accurate, the potential scope of damage would be staggering. Sabbatella pointed out that the scale of North Korean infiltration extends beyond hacking to steal funds (billions of dollars have been stolen in the past three years to fund nuclear weapons programs); it also includes staff being hired by legitimate companies to gain system access and operate the infrastructure that underpins major crypto companies. Regarding how they are hired, Sabbatella explained that North Korean staff primarily act as "fronts" by finding unsuspecting remote workers around the world. These recruiters reach out to individuals in Ukraine, the Philippines, and other developing countries through freelance platforms such as Upwork and Freelancer. They offered collaborators a 20% cut of the profits in exchange for verified account credentials or permission for North Korean agents to remotely use their identities, with the agents keeping 80%. Sabbatella stated that many North Korean hackers target the United States, using an American as a "front" and posing as a Chinese person who doesn't speak much English to secure an interview. They infect the "front's" computer with malware, gaining a US IP address and access to much of the internet that is inaccessible from North Korea. Once hired, companies retain them because they "perform well, work long hours, and never complain." Sabbatella also stated that the success of North Korean criminal activities lies not only in sophisticated social engineering but also in the lack of operational security (opsec) among crypto companies and users themselves. He bluntly stated that the crypto industry "likely has the worst opsec in the entire computer industry," with many founders "fully doxxed their information, doing a terrible job of holding private keys securely, and easily becoming victims of social engineering."