Contagious Interview

North Korean WaterPlum Group Infects 30,000 Computers Across 100 Countries via Fake Coding Tests

The North Korean-linked group WaterPlum, also known as Contagious Interview, has infected at least 30,000 computers in more than 100 countries between December 2025 and July 2026. According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), the operation moved at least $10.7 million in cryptocurrency to North Korea and compromised more than 7,000 wallets. Attackers pose as recruiters on social media and freelance platforms, luring software developers with nonexistent job offers that require downloading malicious files disguised as coding tests. The malware arsenal includes BeaverTail, InvisibleFerret, OtterCookie, OtterCandy, and StoatWaffle, with the latter hiding inside blockchain-themed projects and abusing Visual Studio Code configurations. Developers are specifically targeted because they often store production keys, wallets, and credentials on the same machines used for testing third-party code. Japanese authorities have dismantled laptop farms connected to the scheme that helped maintain the attackers' operational cover.

Deepfakes Turn Job Interviews into Cyberattack Vectors Targeting IT Candidates and Recruiters

Deepfake technology and malicious test assignments are increasingly used during IT hiring processes to conduct industrial espionage or deploy malware. Attackers impersonate recruiters or candidates, sending infected GitHub repositories or npm packages that install backdoors stealing credentials and enabling remote access. Groups such as Lazarus and the dedicated Contagious Interview collective have run campaigns against chemical and IT firms, while individual cases like the Smello Python developer incident show how prepare scripts in package.json can trigger hidden payloads. Gartner predicts that by 2028 one in four job applicants could be fake, creating risks beyond bad hires including data theft and financial loss. Defenses include isolated virtual machines for test tasks, profile verification by companies like Socure, and interview techniques such as the GOTCHA movement challenges or corneal reflection probes developed by universities. Major firms including Cisco, McKinsey, and Google are returning to in-person interviews as a reliable countermeasure. The rapid evolution of deepfake quality tracked by Unit 42 means layered verification combining technical, procedural, and human checks is now essential.