What if your next star hire isn’t a trusted employee but an infiltrator? This isn’t phishing – it’s threat actors slipping in during onboarding.
Meet Jordan from Colorado. Resume, references and background check all clear. On day one Jordan logs in, joins team meetings, and gets full access to repos, project files, and dev keys. Within a week Jordan seems indispensable – fixing bugs and pointing out misconfigs. But Jordan wasn’t who they seemed to be. That seamless onboarding was handing the keys directly to the attacker.
Phishing vs Fake Hires
Malicious email attacks are old news compared to today’s threats where threat actors login directly. Although phishing is still growing – up 49% since 2021 – most defenses focus on email. HR and onboarding remain blind spots.
Why Hiring Fraud Is Rising
Remote hiring lets companies reach global talent, but it removes in-person checks. Fake identities, spoofed references, AI-generated profiles and even deepfakes make it easy for bad actors to appear credible. In one case, more than 320 North Korean operatives infiltrated companies posing as remote IT workers – a 220% increase year over year. Some even passed deepfake interviews using U.S.-based credentials.
Conclusion
The new cyber frontier isn’t a suspicious link in your inbox – it’s someone setting up their account for orientation. Onboarding must become security-aware too. Beyond background checks, organizations need to verify identities thoroughly, control access from day one, and treat identity as a critical security perimeter.
About COE Security
COE Security partners with organizations in financial services, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, and government to secure AI-powered systems and ensure compliance. Our offerings include:
- AI-enhanced threat detection and real-time monitoring
- Data governance aligned with GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS
- Secure model validation to guard against adversarial attacks
- Customized training to embed AI security best practices
- Penetration Testing (Mobile, Web, AI, Product, IoT, Network & Cloud)
- Secure Software Development Consulting (SSDLC)
- Customized CyberSecurity Services
We help financial institutions secure onboarding workflows, support healthcare providers in safeguarding patient systems, enable retailers to protect supply chains, assist manufacturers in defending operational access, and equip government agencies to fortify identity-based controls.
Follow COE Security on LinkedIn for ongoing insights into secure hiring, identity management, and cyber safety.