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3 Threats Your CIOs Can’t Ignore This Week
🕵️♂️ North Korea’s Fraudulent Remote Hiring Campaign
On May 7, The Daily Raptor covered a growing trend: North Korean agents submitting fraudulent resumes to land remote jobs in U.S. companies and Western allied nations. That coverage is available here.
Last week, DTEX released an expanded report, exposing the scale and strategic coordination behind this campaign targeting U.S. IT, healthcare, and government sectors. The combination of deep technical capabilities, data exfiltration, ransomware/extortion, and revenue generation for weapons programs represents a uniquely dangerous threat. From DTEX report (attached below):
“These activities are often synchronized with physical operations, reflecting a seamless integration of digital and kinetic objectives.
At its core, the DPRK’s cyber program functions more like a state-sanctioned crime syndicate than a conventional military or intelligence apparatus. The profits—from ransomware, cryptocurrency theft, financial fraud, and insider infiltration—flow upward to fund weapons development and sanctions evasion. Simultaneously, parallel operations engage in state espionage, accelerating nuclear and military programs through stolen intelligence.”
Why It Matters:
This campaign is actively impacting CIOs and CISOs across sectors.
It’s a highly sophisticated threat affecting many of our customers today.
Identifying and eradicating these threats is difficult, especially within complex environments.
Arm our customers with the proper questions to ask internally
Chinese-made solar inverters and batteries have been found to contain hidden cellular communication modules that bypass traditional network defenses. These concealed components could enable remote attackers to:
Access critical power infrastructure undetected
Trigger regional blackouts or infrastructure shutdowns
Evade existing cybersecurity and OT protocols
This is not theoretical — U.S. energy officials have confirmed these vulnerabilities. Chinese vendors like Huawei now control over 200 GW of installed capacity in Europe alone, dramatically increasing the threat surface.
Nations including the U.S. are implementing regulatory actions and equipment restrictions. Your customers need to assess and harden their critical infrastructure now. Full Reuters report
Why It Matters:
Many of our customers may be directly or indirectly exposed through their OT supply chain.
Supply chain components—regardless of industry—now represent elevated cyber and operational risk.
CIOs and CISOs must now account for hidden comms, hardware trustworthiness, and energy resilience.
Partnering With Our Customers:
Is this a relevant risk for your customer's environment?
Help them conduct a written risk assessment on their operational and supply chain exposure.
Do they maintain a fully documented inventory of mission-critical infrastructure?
Is there a need to investigate components sourced from under-vetted vendors?
Recommended Actions:
Engage third-party experts to assess cyber and comms risk
Audit OT/ICS equipment and identify redundancies or safer alternatives
Guide procurement strategy away from at-risk manufacturers
🔐 CRITICAL INTEL: TP-Link Routers Pose National Security Risk
The Threat in 30 Seconds:
TP-Link routers—widely deployed across U.S. networks—pose an urgent national security risk. These devices now account for nearly 60% of the U.S. market, yet carry firmware-level vulnerabilities and are legally obligated to comply with China’s national security laws.
Key Facts:
Senate Intelligence Findings: TP-Link maintains “deep ties” with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
Custom Backdoors: Researchers have discovered highly unusual vulnerabilities in TP-Link firmware
Legal Compliance: TP-Link must provide data access to Beijing per Chinese law
Proven Exploitation: Chinese APTs have used TP-Link devices to breach U.S. and EU networks
Industry Non-Cooperation: TP-Link refuses to participate in collective efforts to dismantle Chinese botnets
Business Impact:
Your customers’ IP, operations, and sensitive data could be at substantial risk
Regulatory compliance issues and emergency hardware replacement may be imminent
Continued use of these devices potentially exposes clients to Chinese state-sponsored espionage
Recommended Action:
Immediately identify and replace all TP-Link hardware in client environments. A full network audit and migration plan toward vetted, trusted vendors is the only prudent path forward.
🧭 Bottom Line:
Your CIO’s/CISO’s supply chain is now their attack surface.
Consult and encourage them to treat every component, vendor, and connection as a potential entry point — because their adversaries already do.
Advocate for Long-Term Customer Success:
Always & Relentlessly
Managing Expectations
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