Ep. 3: The Americans - Exclusive Interview: Laptop Farmer Facilitating N. Korea's IT Worker Scandal

All North Korean IT worker schemes hinge on one thing: a willing participant in America. We found one, and knocked on her door.

Experts have dubbed some of these Americans “laptop farmers.” The North Koreans call them “facilitators” – people willing to host multiple laptops in their home and happy to not ask too many questions. But identifying these people can be hard: unless you have access to a private Discord channel where North Korean IT workers talk freely among themselves.

In Episode 3 of To Catch a Thief: North Korea On Our Payroll, host and former lead cybersecurity and digital espionage reporter for The New York Times, Nicole Perlroth, goes to Ohio to try to understand how and why anyone would help a hostile, authoritarian regime, launder their true whereabouts, and fuel their nuclear weapons program.

To Catch a Thief is co-produced by Nicole Perlroth and Rubrik in partnership with Pod People.

To Catch a Thief was written and produced by Nicole Perlroth, along with Khrista Rypl, T. J. Raphael, Rebecca Chaisson and Sam Gebauer. Additional thanks to Allie Pinel, Fendall Fulton, Krissy Clark, Cai Lee, Eunice Park and Aimee Machado. Editing and Sound Design by Erica Huang. Art direction and design by Ben Long, Gareth Strange and Sarah Burley at the John & Jane Agency, and support from John Leestma.