James McTeigue’s V for Vendetta plays like it was ripped from yesterday’s headlines, not just those of twenty years ago. It’s a reminder of why the adage of “history repeats itself” is so prevalent. 

Of course, the efforts of Evey Hammond (Natalie Portman) and the Guy Fawkes-masked vigilante known as V (Hugo Weaving) to dismantle the totalitarian police state in a near-future United Kingdom were actually based on Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s serialized graphic novel from the 1980s. Thus, the historical echoes go well beyond the film’s creative springboard of the 2000s, specifically the Bush-Cheney administration.

Researchers at IBM X‑Force and Flare Research have uncovered data that sheds light on how North Korea’s fake IT worker schemes operate and infiltrate companies in order to funnel money back to the regime and steal sensitive information.

In a published report, ”Inside the North Korean infiltrator threat,” the pair detail evidence of the top-level infrastructure used to manage the operations, how workers apply for and secure IT roles, and mitigation strategies businesses can use to avoid falling victim.

The threat of North Korean nationals operating as remote IT contractors or full-time technology staff inside unsuspecting companies has come to light over the past several years, yet the report says security experts are only starting to realize the scale and sophistication of the operation.