Coinbase, who was born as a digital native company and an defender of the work in a remote work, has reversed in the labor policy that he assumed mostly from the pandemic. Now require that all new employees travel to the United States for your face -to -face orientation. Those who access sensitive information must be American citizens and undergo fingerprints.
Reason does not have so much to do with Teleworking setbacks that we have seen in other companies. It is rather a matter of survival: they have detected North Korean technological workers trying to systematically infiltrate the company To steal information and cryptocurrencies.
The threat. The CEO, Brian Armstrong, explained that they have detected a constant flow of highly qualified North Korean candidates. “It’s as if 500 new each quarter graduated,” he said. And they are not simple amateur hackers: the FBI has confirmed that They operate with accomplices in US territory That they forward portable companies, attend virtual interviews posing as candidates and set up screen companies. It also occurs in Europe.
For the Pyongyang regime, cryptocurrency theft is a more income source of financing whose income They also help the nuclear weapons program. Only this year they would have stolen $ 1.4 billion Exchange Bybit
Between bambalins. Infiltrates are not the only problem. Coinbase has discovered bribes of hundreds of thousands of dollars to customer service workers to obtain account information. Some came to introduce mobiles in supposedly safe facilities to photograph screens with sensitive data.
The company has responded with drastic measures: employees work in armored facilities with Chromebooks safe and limited access to information. “When we catch someone, we do not accompany him to the door; he goes to jail,” Armstrong said.
Turning point. This security crisis marks a before and after in the debate on remote work. Coinbase has had to choose between what was its business culture and its survival. And he has done the second. In fact he has opened a new office in North Carolina to concentrate critical operations in US territory.
The interviews now require keeping the camera on to verify that the candidate is the one who claims to be and is not being supplanted or directed.
And now what. The Coinbase case can be just the tip of the iceberg. If a leading technology company with security as one of its pillars cannot keep remote work safe, what can others expect?
- Pandemia normalized teleworking, but security threats can reverse that trend.
- Especially in sensitive sectors such as finance, technology and defense.
In Xataka | In 2011 a group of investors bought 80,000 bitcoins. They have been sold by 17,000,000% more expensive
Outstanding image | Xataka
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