this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2025
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A North Korean imposter was uncovered, working as a sysadmin at Amazon U.S., after their keystroke input lag raised suspicions with security specialists at the online retail giant. Normally, a U.S.-based remote worker’s computer would send keystroke data within tens of milliseconds. This suspicious individual’s keyboard lag was “more than 110 milliseconds,” reports Bloomberg.

Amazon is commendably proactive in its pursuit of impostors, according to the source report. The news site talked with Amazon’s Chief Security Officer, Stephen Schmidt, about this fascinating new case of North Koreans trying to infiltrate U.S. organizations to raise hard currency for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), and sometimes indulge in espionage and/or sabotage.

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[–] BurnedDonutHole@ani.social 8 points 3 hours ago

North Korea got better ping than mine ahahaha...

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 106 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

How am I the first person to ask why they're measuring the latency on everyone's keystrokes?

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 12 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Literally, catching North Koreans might have been the idea. It's become a big issue.

Probably one of the less shocking things they track.

[–] a1studmuffin@aussie.zone 61 points 20 hours ago

Given they've had 1800 recent infiltration attempts, I understand their suspicion.

[–] gerowen@piefed.social 73 points 21 hours ago (6 children)

I'm never quite sure how to feel about this. On one hand, if the person just wants to make some money and they're doing the job, why bother them. On the other hand though, I know that anybody who has consistent access to an internet connection in North Korea is almost certainly working for the benefit of the great leader and they aren't actually seeing any money or benefit for themselves. I just hate that the citizens of North Korea have to suffer and be punished because of their asswipe of a leader.

[–] Socialism_Everyday@reddthat.com 1 points 2 hours ago

I just hate that the citizens of North Korea have to suffer and be punished

Then you surely condemn the global sanctions on North Korean economy? Especially given the recent study showing how US+EU sanctions murder half a million people yearly since over 50 years ago.

[–] WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works 14 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I know that anybody who has consistent access to an internet connection in North Korea is almost certainly working for the benefit of the great leader and they aren’t actually seeing any money or benefit for themselves.

Eh, this doesn't sound like the job you would give someone in a prison camp. You're talking about people that you're allowing to interact and work regularly with foreigners outside the country. That does not sound like the type of position you trust to a political prisoner. That sounds like a position you put someone of high trust. It's probably a pretty cushy job as the standards of North Korea go. Sure beats scratching at dirt or working in some godawful arms factory. It's probably the type of job you need some good family connections in the Party in order to get. Sure, the government takes all the direct monetary benefit of the work, but that is just kindof how Communist systems work. I imagine the people working those jobs have some of the highest standards of living available to people that aren't senior party leadership.

[–] pilferjinx@piefed.social 63 points 21 hours ago (3 children)

When you look at the ISS pics of NK during the night, you get a sense of how bad it is for most of the population.

[–] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 36 points 18 hours ago (1 children)
[–] dubyakay@lemmy.ca 25 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Maybe they just really like the Dark Sky initiative.

[–] nomy@lemmy.zip 7 points 3 hours ago

An entire country of astronomy nerds sounds like a tourist destination to me!

[–] Serinus@lemmy.world 12 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

It kind of amazes me they don't have better infrastructure. It's not like they're shy about forced labor.

[–] Honytawk@feddit.nl 9 points 10 hours ago

You can only do so much with forced labour. They aren't doing their best, just "enough" to not get punished.

I'm sure plenty of them also use malicious compliance and sabotage stuff to get back at the top brass.

[–] mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 7 points 15 hours ago

seeing the stars instead of light pollution doesn't sound like a bad thing on its own

[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 23 points 18 hours ago

North Korea intentionally does this to get revenue for the state.

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 39 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

They’re also a security threat. Any opportunity to exfiltrate potentially profitable or leverageable data will be taken. I’d bet they’re used to sniff out vulnerabilities for ransomware attacks too. I definitley identify and agree with the healthy sympathy (I guess empathy if you’re in the states, our leader more than qualifies as an asswipe) for the citizens of North Korea

[–] Socialism_Everyday@reddthat.com 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

They’re also a security threat. Any opportunity to exfiltrate potentially profitable or leverageable data will be taken

But thats good, the USA is carrying out genocide in Palestine and is about to invade Venezuela. And Amazon is no saint either.

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

The US is enabling and providing political cover for the Palestinian genocide, Israel is carrying it out. I don’t think an invasion of Venezuela is imminent, just the same kind of underhanded manipulation and isolation that has been done to Cuba for the past half century. Agreed Amazon sucks.

None of that changes the fact that only thing that these North Korean tech workers do is help Kim fund his military projects and his Bourgeoisie lifestyle

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 19 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

These people are definitely not there just to make some money. And whatever money they make will be used to prop up the genocidal regime.

[–] Socialism_Everyday@reddthat.com 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Are you talking about the USA Amazon workers propping up the USA genocidal regime, as seen in Palestine? Because, AFAIK, there's no genocide going on as a consequence of North Korea. Care to elaborate?

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

I'd say locking up a substantial part of your population, including their families in murderous gulags amounts to genocide. Oh, and did anybody say Arduous March?

[–] Socialism_Everyday@reddthat.com 1 points 28 minutes ago

I'd say locking up a substantial part of your population

US has highest prison population in the world, 1 in 5 black men go through the prison system. Is that genocide?

including their families

This is fox news propaganda, similar level to "weapons of mass destruction in Iraq"

gulags

Gulags are just prisons. GULAG is the acronym of the penitentiary system of the USSR.

[–] flamingo_pinyata@sopuli.xyz 16 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

I guess this is inevitable at huge companies. Nobody cares about the actual person you're hiring, it's just another position to fill. Of course there will be fakes of all kinds.

[–] TragicNotCute@lemmy.world 14 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

It’s not that, it’s that they are incredibly sophisticated in their techniques. I just had to sit through 90 minutes of training about how to spot fake applicants.

[–] WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works 8 points 16 hours ago (3 children)

I don't get why companies can't solve this problem entirely by just flying out applicants for in-person interviews towards the end of the hiring process. Or hell, maybe only even ask the candidate to fly out for a visit after they've already accepted the job offer. Just one minimal and relatively cheap step to confirm the remote worker you're hiring is who they claim to be. For the cost of a flight, a night or two in a hotel, and some meal vouchers, you can verify someone's identity. Sure, maybe not for freelance work. But for any well paid technical field? This is a trivial expense.

[–] TragicNotCute@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

It not practical at a remote first company to fly people out to where we happen to have offices when they could be working from anywhere.

It’s cheap-ish for a flight, but at scale, the starts to become an expensive hiring pipeline.

[–] oce@jlai.lu 5 points 4 hours ago

I feel this can be bypassed the same way remote interviews have been passed, you have a talented dude A actually trained to pass whatever verification is needed, and whenever there's privacy, it switches to dude B, while dude A moves to another recruitment process. I think I have heard about this kind of dude A offering his services online for anyone ready to pay.
Anyone else has never seen the face of one of their full remote colleague? I have one in my team, he does a good job though, however many they may be behind him.

[–] Honytawk@feddit.nl 1 points 10 hours ago

I wonder how much it would cost to hire an actor for that. You know they would find ways around them.

[–] dubyakay@lemmy.ca 2 points 16 hours ago (2 children)
[–] TragicNotCute@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

It’s more a list of warnings signs.

  • blurred/virtual background (we make them turn it off during interviewing)
  • refusal to do gestures or follow specific instructions (wave your hand in front of your face)
  • not familiar with local knowledge like weather
  • appearing to read from the screen or phone

There’s more than that, but those are the highlights.

[–] justaman123@lemmy.world 3 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Yeah capitalism says: but cheaper worker ok