What Michael Barnhart has said about North Korean remote IT worker scheme

2 quotes · 1 episode · Jun 9, 2026

Michael Barnhart, Nation-state insider threat investigator who tracks North Korean hackers and IT workers, has been quoted on North Korean remote IT worker scheme 2 times in 1 episode of To Catch a Thief: North Korea On Our Payroll, most recently on June 9, 2026. Each quote below is verbatim and links to the moment it was said.

In their words

Barnhart estimates each North Korean IT worker has about seven personas and says companies often have multiple 'workers' who are the same person.
“I'd say for every IT worker, there's probably seven personas attached to it”
To Catch a Thief: North Korea On Our Payroll: Ep. 1: Strange Things Are Happening (Jun 9, 2026) · Listen from 38:07
Barnhart argues North Korea is better understood as a cyber syndicate than as a conventional government.
“I think understanding that North Korea is a cyber syndicate and less of an actual government or a nation”
To Catch a Thief: North Korea On Our Payroll: Ep. 1: Strange Things Are Happening (Jun 9, 2026) · Listen from 37:09

Ep. 1: Strange Things Are Happening
To Catch a Thief: North Korea On Our Payroll · Jun 9, 2026 · 54 min
Nicole Perlroth and cybersecurity experts trace how North Korean operatives secured remote IT jobs at U.S. companies to fund the regime's weapons programs.