Microsoft: North Korean Jasper Sleet Uses AI to Fake Job Applicants

AI at every step of the hiring process

Microsoft reports that the group also uses AI to prepare natural-sounding answers for interviews and to help with programming tests. AI also supports communication in foreign languages: translated text is adjusted so that it reads less awkwardly to the recipient.

A separate Microsoft report from March described Jasper Sleet reusing the same photo, edited slightly, across résumés for several fake people. In online interviews, the group reportedly used voice-changing software to hide even the accent of the speaker.

A real person still does the work, but AI helps with email and technical tasks, which lets the group keep several false identities active at once. From a company's perspective, a seemingly capable employee may in fact be a fake. Once hired, such a person can reach internal systems and business information.

What Microsoft recommends

The company advises employers to check résumés for inconsistencies in names, addresses and employment dates. It also recommends checking whether an applicant's social media accounts closely resemble those of other people, and whether the same phone number appears more than once.

Microsoft further recommends not relying on a single online interview. Employers should hold several video calls and confirm each time that the applicant themselves appears on camera.

The findings show that résumés, photos and voices can all be manipulated with AI, so seeing a candidate's face in one interview is no longer enough to establish who they are.