Technology

Google warns North Korean spies are gaining positions in Western firms

TechRadar News - Wed, 04/02/2025 - 11:13

Google's Threat Intelligence Group has identified more threats from the DPRK
North Korean hackers pose as IT workers to get jobs in Western firms
This brings a host of security threats for companies

A new report by Google’s Threat Intelligence Group has warned of an expansion of operations by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea).

The researchers claim an increasing number of Western firms accidentally hiring North Korean IT workers who are raising funds for the regime.

These workers pose a serious security threat to organizations, which are at risk of data theft, disruption, and espionage.

Extortion tactics

This is part of a much wider campaign from the DPRK which has seen state-sponsored threat actors infiltrate dozens of Fortune 100 companies, resulting in as much as $6.8 million in revenue earned for the DPRK.

This led to the US Justice Department arresting several US citizens who were running ‘laptop farms’ which house US equipment sent to new employees - the facilitators installed remote access technology allowing workers from the DPRK to log in.

Google also located facilitators in both the US and UK sharing equipment, indicating a “complex logistical chain”.

An investigation into the campaign’s infrastructure revealed a ‘heightened interest in Europe’, and a global expansion of tactics from the DPRK and an increased volume of extortion attempts.

The threat intelligence group identified cases where recently fired IT workers “threatened to release their former employers’ sensitive data or to provide it to a competitor” including proprietary data and source code for internal projects.

To combat this phenomenon, Google reports that many companies are operating a bring your own device policy , but these often lack traditional security and logging tools and make threat detection much more difficult, dramatically increasing a risk in undetected malicious activity.

“The increase in extortion campaigns coincided with heightened United States law enforcement actions against DPRK IT workers, including disruptions and indictments. This suggests a potential link, where pressure on these workers may be driving them to adopt more aggressive measures to maintain their revenue stream.

Google warns North Korean spies are gaining positions in Western firms

TechRadar News - Wed, 04/02/2025 - 11:13

Google's Threat Intelligence Group has identified more threats from the DPRK
North Korean hackers pose as IT workers to get jobs in Western firms
This brings a host of security threats for companies

A new report by Google’s Threat Intelligence Group has warned of an expansion of operations by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea).

The researchers claim an increasing number of Western firms accidentally hiring North Korean IT workers who are raising funds for the regime.

These workers pose a serious security threat to organizations, which are at risk of data theft, disruption, and espionage.

Extortion tactics

This is part of a much wider campaign from the DPRK which has seen state-sponsored threat actors infiltrate dozens of Fortune 100 companies, resulting in as much as $6.8 million in revenue earned for the DPRK.

This led to the US Justice Department arresting several US citizens who were running ‘laptop farms’ which house US equipment sent to new employees - the facilitators installed remote access technology allowing workers from the DPRK to log in.

Google also located facilitators in both the US and UK sharing equipment, indicating a “complex logistical chain”.

An investigation into the campaign’s infrastructure revealed a ‘heightened interest in Europe’, and a global expansion of tactics from the DPRK and an increased volume of extortion attempts.

The threat intelligence group identified cases where recently fired IT workers “threatened to release their former employers’ sensitive data or to provide it to a competitor” including proprietary data and source code for internal projects.

To combat this phenomenon, Google reports that many companies are operating a bring your own device policy , but these often lack traditional security and logging tools and make threat detection much more difficult, dramatically increasing a risk in undetected malicious activity.

“The increase in extortion campaigns coincided with heightened United States law enforcement actions against DPRK IT workers, including disruptions and indictments. This suggests a potential link, where pressure on these workers may be driving them to adopt more aggressive measures to maintain their revenue stream.

Say goodbye to disruptive OLED Care prompts on monitors - MSI will extend OLED Care 2.0 function to 24 hours

TechRadar News - Wed, 04/02/2025 - 11:06

MSI will be extending panel refreshes on its OLED Care 2.0 monitors to 24 hours instead of 16 hours
It will eliminate gameplay disruptions for gamers
This will come into effect starting in May

OLED monitors have gradually become a mainstream option for many users (especially gamers) with advanced care technologies built to help prevent image retention and burn-in. Fortunately, MSI is introducing a new measure to further improve this technology's efficiency.

As stated in a press release, MSI will be extending its OLED Care 2.0 timer to 24 hours to prevent panel protection (pixel shifts) from activating automatically to stop burn-in (permanent image retention). Previously, this would occur every 16 hours which would disrupt activities - but now, users will have more flexibility with this function without many disturbances.

It goes a long way to show how advanced MSI's OLED care is, as most other monitors advise users to start pixel refreshes at least every 4 or 6 hours: with my Alienware AW3423DWF QD-OLED ultrawide, prompts will be presented every 6 hours, and while you can always set this to not show up at all, it's also easy to forget to activate.

Measures such as this could prove to be beneficial for MSI and other OLED displays: one of the biggest reasons why most PC users won't make the transition to OLED from a regular LED monitor (besides its expensive nature), is the fear of potential burn-in, but that's very quickly becoming a non-issue.

RE4 remake in OLED greatness... (Image credit: Future) OLED monitors are finally getting the attention they deserve, and I love it

There's still a long way for OLED monitors to go in terms of pricing and improvements for work-related activities - as most OLED users complain about text fringing when working from home - but it's great to see that companies are making extra efforts to make them more accessible.

Samsung has already announced that it will introduce cheaper OLED monitors to help speed up the transition from regular LED, which could encourage gamers to make the switch. I've stated this before, but OLED is quite literally the best display type I've had the pleasure of using, with deeper black levels thanks to an infinite contrast ratio, ultimately providing great image accuracy.

Updates to technologies like OLED Care 2.0 are examples of what will only help the display type become mainstream. We're also seeing discounts more often for the likes of Samsung's Odyssey G6 QD-OLED, which is currently 31% off at Amazon.

It's only a matter of time before LED is left behind for a large majority, and I can't wait until that day comes.

Say goodbye to disruptive OLED Care prompts on monitors - MSI will extend OLED Care 2.0 function to 24 hours

TechRadar News - Wed, 04/02/2025 - 11:06

MSI will be extending panel refreshes on its OLED Care 2.0 monitors to 24 hours instead of 16 hours
It will eliminate gameplay disruptions for gamers
This will come into effect starting in May