Oregon state Rep. Dacia Grayber's website was hacked by a North Korean IT worker through a Democratic People's Republic of Korea worker scheme.
Fortune's Amanda Gertu reports that the staffer was hired as a subcontractor to help make minor design edits where they gained access to the site using credentials handed over from the original developer, hired through Upwork, who had no knowledge of the threat.
Grayber telling Fortune, “As soon as we learned there was a suspicious login to the WordPress site, my team and I took steps to secure all login information, and ensure that no user data was put at risk.” Adding that the campaign site did not store any user data or sensitive information.
The scheme itself? Part of over 100,000 North Korean DPRK members, working in over 40 countries worldwide in fields like IT, construction, and more, all in an effort to help fund North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
How does it work? Trained DPRK workers steal identities, use AI tools to build resumes and profiles, and then land jobs before sending money and intelligence back to North Korea. With the UN estimating that the IT worker program itself generates hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue annually.
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