North Korea Uses Third-Country IT Staff to Land US Jobs, CrowdStrike Puts 2025 Crypto Losses Above $2B

The notable shift here is operational: North Korea is no longer relying solely on its own nationals to pass hiring screens, but on third-country intermediaries paid in crypto — a pipeline that turns routine remote hiring into a state-sponsored access vector. The CrowdStrike figure matters less as a tally than as a signal that crypto remains the preferred monetization channel for those intrusions. For crypto and RWA firms, which often hire globally and hold irreversible assets, the insider risk is the exposure worth watching. Whether the third-country recruitment model scales faster than screening practices adapt is the open question.