Companies in the market for cybersecurity professionals could face a new method of attack, made harder to spot because of artificial intelligence: Hackers posing as job applicants.
As cyber threats targeting U.S. companies multiply, some security leaders have increased scrutiny during hiring to weed out bad actors—or simply applicants with over-embellished resumes.
Globally, the cyber sector faces a shortfall of roughly four million professionals, an increase of 12.6% from 2022, according to ISC2, a professional and certification group in cybersecurity. Fraudsters are seizing on the demand.
Lili Infante, founder and chief executive of CAT Labs, said during The Wall Street Journal’s Tech Live: Cybersecurity conference on Thursday that North Korean hackers frequently target her cryptocurrency asset recovery startup by pretending to apply for jobs. Some are even referred by recruiters.
“We’ve weeded out over 50 candidates that were North Korean spies,” she said, “to the point where I had to put certain controls in place in my hiring process.”
If hired, the spies could seek out intellectual property and steal corporate data, Infante said. If they’re able to infiltrate a crypto firm, they could put vulnerabilities into code to loot assets, she added.
(Courtsey: msn)
