Latest news with #Socure
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Anthony from Staten Island' said he developed a chat tool for Meta. His entire identity was fake.
A provider of identity verification and fraud tools was recently targeted by what appear to be multiple North Korean IT workers managing dozens of personas. The stream of resumes to Socure for software development positions all boasted experience at brand-name tech firms like Amazon, Google, and Netflix. Turns out they were all fake. 'Anthony from Staten Island' had a polished set of credentials and claimed he previously worked at Meta Platforms. During a Zoom interview for a senior software engineer job, the supposed New Yorker was charming and articulate as he talked about creating a key chat application at the $1.6 trillion social media giant. For the first 20 minutes, everything went smoothly. Anthony smiled, engaged naturally, and delivered polished responses to questions. Then, it all changed. 'What was most striking was he was really affable,' recalled Rivka Little, Socure's chief growth officer. 'You can 100% see why people would become a victim to this.' When the interview advanced to more complex two-part questions that required further explanation, Anthony lost his place. He seemed more stilted and less certain, Little told Fortune. Socure believes Anthony was a North Korean IT worker, part of a sophisticated and insidious criminal organization that consists of trained technologists from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). The DPRK IT workers use American identities, real or fabricated, and apply for remote jobs in IT at American and European companies. The scheme has been a massive runaway success. Hundreds of Fortune 500 companies have unwittingly hired thousands of IT workers from the DPRK, and the IT crew sends its salaries to authoritarian leader Kim Jong Un. Kim uses the money to fund the country's weapons of mass destruction program. The scheme generates between $200 million to $600 million a year, according to UN estimates, and the DPRK IT workers collaborate with highly skilled operatives responsible for stealing billions in crypto heists. The scheme is so pervasive that some tech founders have resorted to asking potential job candidates to insult Kim before progressing to a formal interview. DPRK IT workers are constantly surveilled and insulting the supreme leader of the regime would lead to severe punishment. The threat is scaling rapidly. This year, Kim doubled the earning quotas required of the worker delegations and launched a new artificial intelligence unit called Research Center 227 to support the country's cyber crime initiatives, according to research from security firm DTEX. Socure is publicizing its experience with Anthony to alert other companies to new warning signs and also to avoid the pitfalls of overly restrictive hiring practices that might make it harder for legitimate job seekers. The challenge is the fraudulent candidates are skilled and some are very charming, Little explained. 'Anyone can fall for these interviews—he did really well for a long period of time,' said Little. Some of the indicators that companies are relying on won't work in the long term, she warned. For instance, Anthony gave a surname that sounded Italian and he claimed to hail from Staten Island. During his interview however, he had an accent that didn't align with his origin story. 'People come in all kinds of packages,' she noted. Superficial nuances shouldn't be used to eliminate candidates. And while the DPRK IT workers tend to use stereotypical Western names, if they tweaked their scheme slightly and used names that correlated with their accents, those signs would disappear. More telling, she said, were the inconsistencies in Anthony's digital footprint. Many of the fabricated resumes sent to Socure in recent months had big marquee names that made them stand out. Google, Meta, Amazon, and Netflix were often included and the job applicants claimed to have been responsible for the most innovative and interesting products at those companies. A quick check with certain internal staff who worked at Meta during the time Anthony claimed to be there revealed no one knew him. Another flag was the immaturity of Anthony's digital identity. His email address and phone number had been connected to his name for only a matter of weeks. Usually, people have phone numbers and email addresses linked to them going back years, she noted. And despite a LinkedIn profile matching his work history and displaying the bright green 'Open to work' banner, Anthony didn't have much going on with connections, posts, or likes on the platform. It was unusual for someone with an extensive tech background. However, the last thing a company should do is to create more friction and drama that would make it more difficult for legitimate job candidates, she said. Plus, while the North Korean IT worker scam creates risk to hiring companies, there are plenty of reverse schemes that target job seekers. A woman contacted Socure and told the company she had been interviewed for a job by a fake HR person and scammed out of thousands of dollars after providing her name, ID, and bank account details thinking she had been hired. It creates the need for a delicate balance, said Little. Companies need to protect themselves from fraudulent hires, but can't create so much friction that legitimate candidates find it too difficult to apply for a job. Little suggested that companies integrate passive ID verification into their HR platforms to check identity in the background without requiring upfront ID from candidates. Careful interview techniques that probe for scripted responses or the use of AI in the midst of conversation plus digital footprint clues can also help reveal fraudulent job seekers. 'I've almost never seen such an intersection of fraud, money laundering, and sanctions violations,' said Little. 'It's a perfect storm.' This story was originally featured on
National Post
4 days ago
- Business
- National Post
Chalk Raises $50M Series A to Power AI Inference
Article content Chalk powers real-time decisions for industry leaders Socure, Doppel, and Sunrun Article content SAN FRANCISCO — Chalk, the data platform for AI inference, announced today that it has raised a $50 million Series A at a $500 million valuation. The round was led by Felicis with participation from Triatomic Capital and existing investors General Catalyst, Unusual Ventures, and Xfund. Aydin Senkut, Founder and Managing Partner at Felicis, will join Chalk's board. The capital will be used to accelerate development of Chalk's platform, onboard new customers, and grow its engineering and go-to-market hubs in San Francisco and New York. Article content 'Chalk helps us deliver financial products that are more responsive, more personalized, and more secure for millions of users. It's a direct line from infrastructure to impact,' said Meng Xin Loh, Senior Technical Product Manager, MoneyLion. As AI adoption accelerates, compute is shifting from training to inference to improve predictions, transform customer experiences, and reduce costs. Existing solutions like Databricks and Snowflake solve training data pipelines, and feature stores provide low-latency access to pre-computed data. But these incumbents don't provide a solution for applications that require fresh data, with complex computation, at inference time. Article content Chalk fills a critical gap in the market – inference data pipelines. Chalk's real-time data platform enables customers to make predictions with fresh data at inference time to prevent identity theft, issue instant loans, increase clean energy efficiency, and moderate harmful content. Article content Senkut shared, 'Chalk is poised to become the Databricks of the AI era. It's one of the fastest-growing data companies we've ever seen. The team has fundamentally redefined how data moves through the AI stack, a crucial advancement for chain-of-reasoning models. What's even more remarkable is Chalk's ability to deliver 5-millisecond data pipelines at massive scale – something that, until now, was considered out of reach. We couldn't be more excited to partner with Marc, Elliot, and Andy, who are all repeat technical founders passionate about building infrastructure that delivers an incredible developer experience.' Article content Marc Freed-Finnegan, Chalk Co-Founder and CEO, added, 'We feel incredibly fortunate to have Aydin and Felicis as our partners for the next phase of our growth. We have a shared vision of the future, and we're honored to be part of the cohort of companies they have invested in.' Article content Chalk powers real-time ML across industries including fintech, identity, healthcare, and e-commerce. Companies like Whatnot, Found, Medely, and Iwoca use Chalk as a core infrastructure layer across their business. Article content 'Chalk helps us deliver financial products that are more responsive, more personalized, and more secure for millions of users. It's a direct line from infrastructure to impact,' said Meng Xin Loh, Senior Technical Product Manager, MoneyLion. Article content Chalk has become critical infrastructure for its customers by enabling teams to rapidly operationalize machine learning and AI. At its core, Chalk's Compute Engine empowers teams to write features in pure Python, automatically translating them into high-performance C++ and Rust pipelines to deliver real-time data without complex ETL. Additionally, Chalk's LLM Toolchain unifies structured and unstructured data, offering native vector storage, automated evaluations, and seamless integrations with major LLM providers. Article content Rahul Madduluri, CTO at Doppel, said, 'Chalk powers our LLM pipeline, turning complex inputs — HTML, URLs, screenshots — into structured, auditable features. It lets us serve lightweight heuristics up front and rich LLM reasoning deeper in the stack, so we detect threats others miss without compromising speed or precision.' Article content Chalk was co-founded by Freed-Finnegan, Elliot Marx, and Andrew Moreland — veterans of fintech and data infrastructure. After meeting at Stanford, Marx and Moreland solved large-scale data problems at Affirm and Palantir before co-founding Haven Money, acquired by Credit Karma. Before Chalk, Freed-Finnegan helped launch Google Wallet and started Index, acquired by Stripe (it's now called Stripe Terminal). Across these ventures, the team saw how real-time data pipelines enabled entirely new product categories and business models. Fast forward to today — real-time decisions at inference are essential for all modern applications, and Chalk makes that possible. Article content Chalk is the data platform for inference, providing critical infrastructure that empowers teams to rapidly operationalize machine learning and AI. The developer-friendly platform consists of a Compute Engine that automatically compiles features into high-performance Rust pipelines without complex ETL, and an LLM Toolchain that seamlessly unifies structured and unstructured data. Chalk powers real-time, low-latency machine learning for the world's leading companies, enabling instant loans, fraud prevention, personalized recommendations, and even clean energy optimization. Founded in 2022 and headquartered in San Francisco, Chalk has raised over $60M from Felicis, General Catalyst, Triatomic Capital, Unusual Ventures, and Xfund. Article content Article content Article content Article content Contacts Article content Article content Article content
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Chalk Raises $50M Series A to Power AI Inference
Chalk powers real-time decisions for industry leaders Socure, Doppel, and Sunrun SAN FRANCISCO, May 28, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Chalk, the data platform for AI inference, announced today that it has raised a $50 million Series A at a $500 million valuation. The round was led by Felicis with participation from Triatomic Capital and existing investors General Catalyst, Unusual Ventures, and Xfund. Aydin Senkut, Founder and Managing Partner at Felicis, will join Chalk's board. The capital will be used to accelerate development of Chalk's platform, onboard new customers, and grow its engineering and go-to-market hubs in San Francisco and New York. As AI adoption accelerates, compute is shifting from training to inference to improve predictions, transform customer experiences, and reduce costs. Existing solutions like Databricks and Snowflake solve training data pipelines, and feature stores provide low-latency access to pre-computed data. But these incumbents don't provide a solution for applications that require fresh data, with complex computation, at inference time. Chalk fills a critical gap in the market – inference data pipelines. Chalk's real-time data platform enables customers to make predictions with fresh data at inference time to prevent identity theft, issue instant loans, increase clean energy efficiency, and moderate harmful content. Senkut shared, "Chalk is poised to become the Databricks of the AI era. It's one of the fastest-growing data companies we've ever seen. The team has fundamentally redefined how data moves through the AI stack, a crucial advancement for chain-of-reasoning models. What's even more remarkable is Chalk's ability to deliver 5-millisecond data pipelines at massive scale - something that, until now, was considered out of reach. We couldn't be more excited to partner with Marc, Elliot, and Andy, who are all repeat technical founders passionate about building infrastructure that delivers an incredible developer experience." Marc Freed-Finnegan, Chalk Co-Founder and CEO, added, "We feel incredibly fortunate to have Aydin and Felicis as our partners for the next phase of our growth. We have a shared vision of the future, and we're honored to be part of the cohort of companies they have invested in." Chalk powers real-time ML across industries including fintech, identity, healthcare, and e-commerce. Companies like Whatnot, Found, Medely, and Iwoca use Chalk as a core infrastructure layer across their business. "Chalk helps us deliver financial products that are more responsive, more personalized, and more secure for millions of users. It's a direct line from infrastructure to impact," said Meng Xin Loh, Senior Technical Product Manager, MoneyLion. Chalk has become critical infrastructure for its customers by enabling teams to rapidly operationalize machine learning and AI. At its core, Chalk's Compute Engine empowers teams to write features in pure Python, automatically translating them into high-performance C++ and Rust pipelines to deliver real-time data without complex ETL. Additionally, Chalk's LLM Toolchain unifies structured and unstructured data, offering native vector storage, automated evaluations, and seamless integrations with major LLM providers. Rahul Madduluri, CTO at Doppel, said, "Chalk powers our LLM pipeline, turning complex inputs — HTML, URLs, screenshots — into structured, auditable features. It lets us serve lightweight heuristics up front and rich LLM reasoning deeper in the stack, so we detect threats others miss without compromising speed or precision." Chalk was co-founded by Freed-Finnegan, Elliot Marx, and Andrew Moreland — veterans of fintech and data infrastructure. After meeting at Stanford, Marx and Moreland solved large-scale data problems at Affirm and Palantir before co-founding Haven Money, acquired by Credit Karma. Before Chalk, Freed-Finnegan helped launch Google Wallet and started Index, acquired by Stripe (it's now called Stripe Terminal). Across these ventures, the team saw how real-time data pipelines enabled entirely new product categories and business models. Fast forward to today — real-time decisions at inference are essential for all modern applications, and Chalk makes that possible. About Chalk Chalk is the data platform for inference, providing critical infrastructure that empowers teams to rapidly operationalize machine learning and AI. The developer-friendly platform consists of a Compute Engine that automatically compiles features into high-performance Rust pipelines without complex ETL, and an LLM Toolchain that seamlessly unifies structured and unstructured data. Chalk powers real-time, low-latency machine learning for the world's leading companies, enabling instant loans, fraud prevention, personalized recommendations, and even clean energy optimization. Founded in 2022 and headquartered in San Francisco, Chalk has raised over $60M from Felicis, General Catalyst, Triatomic Capital, Unusual Ventures, and Xfund. To learn more about Chalk, visit View source version on Contacts Media Contacts ChalkKyla Keefekyla@ Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Yahoo
Foreign groups are stealing $1 trillion a year through identity theft – and DOGE is just letting it happen
A new report details how the federal government is ignoring billions of dollars in identity theft-related fraud every year as outdated systems leave government agencies and Americans both vulnerable to scammers. The report from Socure, a firm which sells identity verification services, found that fraudsters are using stolen identities to scam government agencies out of billions and bilk Americans from receiving benefits they are entitled to in the process. The problem is so vast, according to the report, that false or fraudulent claims originating from crime rings primarily based abroad make up between 2 percent to 12 percent of all applications for US government services. Government estimates project that federal agencies annually lose about $500bn to fraudulent claims. Socure's report indicates the number could be nearly twice that high. For comparison, that's more than 10 times the annual budget of USAID, the hub of US foreign aid and soft power now eviscerated by Elon Musk's DOGE campaign and due for rehousing at the State Department. First reported by NBC News, the report went on to find that a lack of identity verification systems at the federal level was having a cascading effect, as scammers often target private entities with information improperly obtained through government agencies. 'There is a real need for fraud prevention solutions which leverage simple consortium data that spans commercial and government programs,' it reads. The report cited basic issues with federal identity verification efforts: callers who connected with agencies were often able to access information by providing information which by itself could have been illicitly obtained, like Social Security numbers and answers to security questions. Red flags, like Social Security numbers that do not match an applicant's date of birth, applications filed from international IP addresses, or phone numbers with area codes that don't match a person's place of residence, are often ignored. 'Today, in many agencies, if someone calls into a call center and says that I'm locked out of my account, many of them will allow them to get access to their account by saying, 'Hey, we'll let you change your name and your password on here,'' Socure vice president Jordan Burris told NBC News. 'They'll probably ask them something to the effect of, 'Hey, can you tell me your name? Can you tell me Social Security Number? Can you perhaps answer this question about a car that you probably had once upon a time?'' One international fraud ring described as 'sophisticated' by Socure's analysis used stolen identities to launch 60 fraudulent claims across 'multiple' agencies during a one-month span last fall. It's a bipartisan problem, too: according to Socure's findings, fraud targeting government agencies jumped during the Covid pandemic as the federal government distributed assistance checks millions of Americans and insituted loan programs for businesses to support workers during lockdowns. The figures never recovered when those programs ended. But it's not part of the 'waste, fraud, and abuse' which either Elon Musk's DOGE effort or the Republican Congress are addressing through federal means and the effort to craft a budget bill that could pass the House and Senate. Republicans in Congress are hoping to find nearly $900bn in savings to fund a renewal of the 2017 Trump tax cuts, but are doing so by instituting work requirements for Medicaid which Democrats say just amounts to a layer of red tape aimed at kicking people off the program. The Republican plan also calls for cuts to food stamps and other changes to Medicaid aimed at lowering the burden for the federal government. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that Medicaid and Medicare together make more than $100bn in improper payments every year. The GOP budget plan includes changes to eligibility requirements that make checks more frequent, but there's no organized push for stronger electronic verification practices. DOGE, meanwhile, is largely sputtering out after taking an axe to USAID and, by most accounts, urging large-scale cuts to federal staff rosters rather than changes to programs to improve efficiency, or even efforts to identify fraud. A website last updated on Sunday operated by the Musk-led effort indicates that his team is taking credit for $170bn in supposed savings, though that number is highly disputed. Elon Musk is expected to take a public step back from his role in the coming days, while his team seems to largely view government programs as fraudulent and wasteful by design, rather than undermined by criminal groups.
The Independent
15-05-2025
- The Independent
Foreign groups are stealing $1 trillion a year through identity theft – and DOGE is just letting it happen
A new report details how the federal government is ignoring billions of dollars in identity theft -related fraud every year as outdated systems leave government agencies and Americans both vulnerable to scammers. The report from Socure, a firm which sells identity verification services, found that fraudsters are using stolen identities to scam government agencies out of billions and bilk Americans from receiving benefits they are entitled to in the process. The problem is so vast, according to the report, that false or fraudulent claims originating from crime rings primarily based abroad make up between 2 percent to 12 percent of all applications for US government services. Government estimates project that federal agencies annually lose about $500bn to fraudulent claims. Socure's report indicates the number could be nearly twice that high. For comparison, that's more than 10 times the annual budget of USAID, the hub of US foreign aid and soft power now eviscerated by Elon Musk 's DOGE campaign and due for rehousing at the State Department. First reported by NBC News, the report went on to find that a lack of identity verification systems at the federal level was having a cascading effect, as scammers often target private entities with information improperly obtained through government agencies. 'There is a real need for fraud prevention solutions which leverage simple consortium data that spans commercial and government programs,' it reads. The report cited basic issues with federal identity verification efforts: callers who connected with agencies were often able to access information by providing information which by itself could have been illicitly obtained, like Social Security numbers and answers to security questions. Red flags, like Social Security numbers that do not match an applicant's date of birth, applications filed from international IP addresses, or phone numbers with area codes that don't match a person's place of residence, are often ignored. 'Today, in many agencies, if someone calls into a call center and says that I'm locked out of my account, many of them will allow them to get access to their account by saying, 'Hey, we'll let you change your name and your password on here,'' Socure vice president Jordan Burris told NBC News. 'They'll probably ask them something to the effect of, 'Hey, can you tell me your name? Can you tell me Social Security Number? Can you perhaps answer this question about a car that you probably had once upon a time?'' One international fraud ring described as 'sophisticated' by Socure's analysis used stolen identities to launch 60 fraudulent claims across 'multiple' agencies during a one-month span last fall. It's a bipartisan problem, too: according to Socure's findings, fraud targeting government agencies jumped during the Covid pandemic as the federal government distributed assistance checks millions of Americans and insituted loan programs for businesses to support workers during lockdowns. The figures never recovered when those programs ended. But it's not part of the 'waste, fraud, and abuse' which either Elon Musk 's DOGE effort or the Republican Congress are addressing through federal means and the effort to craft a budget bill that could pass the House and Senate. Republicans in Congress are hoping to find nearly $900bn in savings to fund a renewal of the 2017 Trump tax cuts, but are doing so by instituting work requirements for Medicaid which Democrats say just amounts to a layer of red tape aimed at kicking people off the program. The Republican plan also calls for cuts to food stamps and other changes to Medicaid aimed at lowering the burden for the federal government. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that Medicaid and Medicare together make more than $100bn in improper payments every year. The GOP budget plan includes changes to eligibility requirements that make checks more frequent, but there's no organized push for stronger electronic verification practices. DOGE, meanwhile, is largely sputtering out after taking an axe to USAID and, by most accounts, urging large-scale cuts to federal staff rosters rather than changes to programs to improve efficiency, or even efforts to identify fraud. A website last updated on Sunday operated by the Musk-led effort indicates that his team is taking credit for $170bn in supposed savings, though that number is highly disputed. Elon Musk is expected to take a public step back from his role in the coming days, while his team seems to largely view government programs as fraudulent and wasteful by design, rather than undermined by criminal groups.
