With the boom in remote work, business landscapes across the world have transformed dramatically. But here’s a startling twist no one saw coming: North Korea has been leveraging this wave to secretly fund its missile program. Here’s the lowdown on this intriguing espionage saga.

Imagine this: your friendly IT contractor, who’s been diligently managing your server updates or ensuring that your firewall is up to snuff, is not who they say they are. Instead, they could be a part of an intricate scheme to funnel millions of dollars back into North Korea’s controversial weapons programs.

In a jaw-dropping revelation from the FBI and the Department of Justice, thousands of IT professionals, supposedly working freelance for U.S. businesses, have been routing a portion of their earnings straight into North Korean coffers. How? By adopting fake identities to land these jobs. These disclosures came to light during a recent news conference in St. Louis, where officials underscored the extent of this ruse, announcing the seizure of $1.5 million and 17 digital domain names in connection with their investigations.

Jay Greenberg, the top brass at the St. Louis FBI office, threw a spotlight on the magnitude of this operation. Companies, he stated, hiring freelance IT talents have “more than likely” onboarded someone involved in this covert operation. This isn’t just a handful of individuals either; we’re talking thousands. North Korean IT operatives have left their digital footprints not just across the U.S., but also in several other countries.

This poses a pressing question for businesses: how can you ensure that the person you’re hiring is legit?

The FBI’s advice? Ramp up your due diligence. In a world where identity obfuscation is becoming increasingly sophisticated, seeing is believing. A simple video interview can act as a preliminary screen. Furthermore, employers should roll up their sleeves and dig deeper when vetting remote IT candidates to ensure their credentials aren’t just smoke and mirrors.

While officials remained tight-lipped about which companies were hoodwinked or when this grand charade started, one thing is crystal clear: with the infiltration of North Korean operatives into the global remote workforce, the rules of the game have changed.

In an era where remote work is the new norm, companies must evolve and adapt their hiring protocols. Because while you’re reading this from your home office, the world of international espionage and intrigue is unfolding in ways one would never have imagined.