In a social engineering attack against a major pharmaceutical company, North Korean hackers used a fake LinkedIn profile with hundreds of connections to trick a computer expert into running malicious code that eventually compromised the corporate network, cybersecurity firm Positive Technologies disclosed this week. 

The Sept. 2020 attack described in the report closely resembles malware campaigns by the DPRK-linked Lazarus Group dubbed “Operation North Star” and “Operation Dream Job,” and stands out with a remarkably well-prepared LinkedIn profile that would be difficult to identify as malicious even by cautious employees. 

“It's clear that North Korean cyber