Ep. 3: The Americans

North Korea has now successfully planted agents in companies over the world. And while businesses are getting better at flagging it, North Koreans still have to meet quota. Cybersecurity experts fear North Koreans will move to monetize their access, and data, beyond the paycheck. That data North Korean IT workers took, the source code they stole — even built in some cases — will come back to haunt these organizations. And it’s not just North Korea anymore. The remote IT worker scheme is now a playbook of its own: Cybercriminals and other nation states have adopted it, some with a reputation for far more destructive attacks. In this final episode, host and former New York Times cybersecurity reporter Nicole Perlroth also confronts how AI is leveling the playing field, and what it means that the one capability that has long eluded North Korea’s hackers — autonomous exploitation — is now within reach. To Catch a Thief is co-produced by Nicole Perlroth and Rubrik in partnership with Pod People. To Catch a Thief was written and produced by Nicole Perlroth, along with Khrista Rypl, T. J. Raphael, Rebecca Chaisson and Sam Gebauer. Additional thanks to Allie Pinel, Fendall Fulton, Krissy Clark, Cai Lee, Eunice Park and Aimee Machado. Editing and Sound Design by Erica Huang. Art direction and design by Ben Long, Gareth Strange and Sarah Burley at the John & Jane Agency, and support from John Leestma.

In the decade after Sony, North Korea learned something fundamental: Destructive cyberattacks make headlines. Financial cyberattacks make money. One year after Sony, North Korea pulled off one of the most audacious bank heists in history and reshaped cybercrime in the process. Today, the regime has expanded those same tactics into billion dollar cryptocurrency heists and sprawling money laundering schemes designed to evade sanctions and bankroll the state – and its nuclear weapons program. Host and former New York Times cybersecurity reporter Nicole Perlroth traces how North Korea evolved from its record-setting hack of the Bank of Bangladesh, to the cryptocurrency hacks that now generate half the regime’s foreign currency income, and in the process became one of the most innovative cybercriminal enterprises on earth. To Catch a Thief is co-produced by Nicole Perlroth and Rubrik in partnership with Pod People. To Catch a Thief was written and produced by Nicole Perlroth, along with Khrista Rypl, T. J. Raphael, Rebecca Chaisson and Sam Gebauer. Additional thanks to Allie Pinel, Fendall Fulton, Krissy Clark, Cai Lee, Eunice Park and Aimee Machado. Editing and Sound Design by Erica Huang. Art direction and design by Ben Long, Gareth Strange and Sarah Burley at the John & Jane Agency, and support from John Leestma.

It’s been nearly 12 years since North Korea launched its crippling attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment over a Seth Rogen film. Most Americans remember the celebrity leaks, the embarrassing emails, the Hollywood spectacle of it all. What they missed was the playbook: Why simply hack an organization when you can bleed reputations dry? Turn stolen data into psychological warfare. It was a model that would soon echo everywhere from Russian intelligence operations to modern ransomware gangs.

Infiltrating the infiltrators. For the first time ever, host and former lead cybersecurity and digital espionage reporter for The New York Times Nicole Perlroth partners with a team of private investigators as they infiltrate a North Korean worker cell. She uncovers what happens after a security firm hires a man calling himself “Joseph.” By turning the tables on one of the world’s most elusive regimes, investigators gain rare, unprecedented access to their hidden Discord ecosystem: leaderboards tracking job applications, interview evasion tactics, and the disturbing levels of access North Korean workers are getting once inside – including, in one case, at an American nuclear utility.

A new breed of worker is quietly clocking in across the United States. They’re writing code. Managing your passwords. Training the next generation of AI models. They’re gaining trust. And access.