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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[–] Wispy2891@lemmy.world 20 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

On one side I feel like "cool, they managed to find a spy on this sophisticated way"

On the other side I'm thinking what kind of intrusive keylogging malware did they install on all their employees laptops...

[–] amzd@lemmy.world 5 points 6 hours ago

This article is just building justification for spying on your employees

[–] pulsewidth@lemmy.world 4 points 14 hours ago

I wonder how many they've missed over the years, this kind of thing has been occuring since at least 2012.

Reminded me of the 'critical infrastructure company' (I presume utility) software developer who handed all his credentials over to a worker in China, including mailing them his RSA keyfob, and wasn't discovered for months until the company security team noticed VPN logins coming from China.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/01/worlds-most-industrious-lazy-man-outsources-all-of-his-work-to-china/

Apparently it's become even easier for malicious remote workers to fake resumes and identities to gain jobs via AI, so I hope all major companies are monitoring their remote access very closely.

https://au.pcmag.com/security/106436/security-firm-discovers-remote-worker-is-really-a-north-korean-hacker

[–] BoycottTwitter@lemmy.zip 15 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

I don't like Amazon but I will admit here I got to respect both the fact that they disclosed this instead of hid it and the fact that they are actively looking for this instead of burying their heads in the sand.

[–] kossa@feddit.org 3 points 5 hours ago

Oooor it's corporate propagande about their totalitarian surveillance system.

[–] BurnedDonutHole@ani.social 25 points 1 day ago

North Korea got better ping than mine ahahaha...

[–] JoeBidet@lemmy.ml 242 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Sounds much better than "Amazon surveils keystrokes of its IT workers"!

[–] Tangent5280@lemmy.world 4 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Well it isn't paranoia if North Korean impostors really are working in your company.

[–] Evotech@lemmy.world 3 points 10 hours ago

Yeah, hate it all you want. But risk scales with the amount of employees you have. At the scale of Amazon you have to do literally everything to minimise risk.

[–] stoly@lemmy.world 24 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

This was also my takeaway. Sounds like a security nightmare if they are logging any data.

[–] kieron115@startrek.website 3 points 13 hours ago

Normal ass websites will monitor user inputs to do things like profile users. I’m pretty sure those “click to show youre not a robot” captchas actually capture how your mouse moves to the box, for example. It’s not that crazy honestly.

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 144 points 1 day 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 23 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day 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 77 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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

[–] PearOfJudes@lemmy.ml 60 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] DylanMc6@lemmy.ml 5 points 20 hours ago

the amazon workers DOESN'T deserve to get pushed around by jeff bezos - the best way to remedy this is by educating these workers on socialism and organizing, and give them the tools they need to collectivize the warehouse. seriously!

[–] gerowen@piefed.social 82 points 1 day ago (9 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.

[–] pilferjinx@piefed.social 67 points 1 day 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 43 points 1 day ago (8 children)
[–] bold_atlas@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

I like how they point out that tiny batch of lights near the coast are NK fishing boats while all the other massive clusters of lights on the ocean are South Korean, Chinese and Japanese fishing boats illegally using spotlights to attract fish.

[–] dubyakay@lemmy.ca 32 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Maybe they just really like the Dark Sky initiative.

[–] nomy@lemmy.zip 14 points 1 day ago

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

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[–] Serinus@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day 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 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 3 points 20 hours ago

You can only do so much with forced labour.

There's a certain irony in this statement, coming from folks who consume it regularly.

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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.

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 43 points 1 day ago (5 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

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[–] WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works 18 points 1 day 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.

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[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 25 points 1 day ago

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

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[–] flamingo_pinyata@sopuli.xyz 23 points 1 day ago (8 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.

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