Fortune reports that North Korean IT workers have obtained jobs at major companies by posing as US or other Western developers with stolen or fake identities. The article cites estimates that the scheme has generated hundreds of millions of dollars annually since 2018, with workers using AI-generated bios, altered appearances or voices, VPNs, facilitators, front companies, and laptop farms to pass hiring and onboarding checks. Practitioners described red flags such as mismatched work histories, geolocation failures, candidates unwilling to criticize Kim Jong Un, and workers holding multiple jobs at once. The threat extends beyond salary diversion because access can support data theft, espionage, extortion, and later use by other DPRK-linked operations.