Are NoKos Scam Phisher Champs?
January 26, 2026
When you think about scams, do you immediately think about Nigeria or Russian females who really want to meet an amerikos ? hat African nation is one of the scam capitals of the world. Russia is pretty capable in this department. But does North Korea hold the title of Scam King? Probably not. But some experts want people to believe that North Korean bad actors are the top phishers of men. Tech Radar explains the authoritarian country’s latest scam: “North Korean Hackers Using Malicious QR Codes In Spear Phishing, FBI Warns.”
North Korean bad actors are preying own academia, think tanks, and US government institutions with sophisticated QR codes called “quishing” attacks. Their goal is to obtain credentials for VPNs, Okta, or Microsoft 365. The FBI issued a warning about quishing attacks. The attacks are sent from “Kimusky,” who sends out convincing emails with complicated QR codes that bypass protections.
The FBI says that QR codes are easily scanned with mobile devices. Here’s how the scam works:
“When the victim scans the code, they are sent through multiple redirectors that collect different information and identity attributes, such as user-agent, operating system, IP address, locale, and screen size. This data is then used to land the victim on a custom-built credential-harvesting page, impersonating Microsoft 365, Okta, or VPN portals.
If the victim does not spot the trick and tries to log in, the credentials would end up with the attackers. What’s more – these attacks often end with session token theft and replay, allowing the threat actors to bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA) and hijack cloud accounts without triggering the usual “MFA failed” alert.”
Mobile devices aren’t managed as readily as desktop and laptop computers. They’re extremely vulnerable to this QR code scam! The smart thing to do is: Don’t scan strange QR codes. Some outfits hire coders, use their scam software, and just provide more phish to be trawled. Hey, restaurant owner, am I talking about you?
Whitney Grace, January 26 , 2026
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