{"id":642126,"date":"2026-08-12T07:52:43","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T07:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/e-bitco.in\/index.php\/2026\/08\/12\/inside-the-fake-crypto-startup-that-fooled-north-korean-it-workers\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T07:52:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T07:52:43","slug":"inside-the-fake-crypto-startup-that-fooled-north-korean-it-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/e-bitco.in\/index.php\/2026\/08\/12\/inside-the-fake-crypto-startup-that-fooled-north-korean-it-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the fake crypto startup that fooled North Korean IT workers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-images.ctmedia.io\/media\/article-covers\/inside-the-fake-crypto-startup-that-fooled-north-korean-it-workers.jpg\" alt=\"Inside the fake crypto startup that fooled North Korean IT workers\" class=\"type:primaryImage\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Suspected North Koreans IT workers joined a fake crypto startup \u2014 without realizing their every move was being tracked to extract valuable intel.<\/p>\n<p>It isn\u2019t often that a reporter gets asked to pose as a venture capitalist to fool suspected North Korean IT workers.<\/p>\n<p>But in June, I found myself joining a Zoom call as \u201cAelin Ashriver,\u201d an investor from the fictitious Definitive Communications, to meet the development team of crypto startup Ballena Azul.<\/p>\n<p>The IT workers on the call believed they were pitching for VC backing for their startup. In reality they had spent weeks working inside a fake crypto company set up purely to study their methods and infrastructure by Mauro Eldritch, founder of cybersecurity firm BCA LTD, and Heiner Garc\u00eda, a cyber threat intelligence analyst at Telef\u00f3nica Tech and founder of NorthScane. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/fake-crypto-startup-fooled-north-korean-it-workers\">Read more<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Suspected North Koreans IT workers joined a fake crypto startup \u2014 without realizing their every move was being tracked to extract valuable intel. It isn\u2019t often that a reporter gets asked to pose as a venture capitalist to fool suspected North Korean IT workers. But in June, I found myself joining a Zoom call as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":642127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-642126","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-blockchain"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/e-bitco.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/e-bitco.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/e-bitco.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e-bitco.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e-bitco.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/e-bitco.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e-bitco.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/e-bitco.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e-bitco.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e-bitco.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}