North Korea’s blossoming friendship with Russia has sparked fears that two of the world’s most formidable cybercrime threats may expand their cooperation to the virtual domain, but one leading security researcher believes these concerns are overblown.

Instead, the greater threat is Moscow’s increasing support for IT workers raising foreign currency for the North Korean regime by disguising themselves as freelance developers and remote engineers, according to Michael Barnhart, a principal insider risk investigator at the U.S.-based cybersecurity firm DTEX Systems.

Once a quiet corner of North Korea’s cyber ecosystem