While AI technology is new, information warfare is as old as conflict itself. For millennia, humans have used propaganda, deception and psychological operations to influence adversaries’ decision-making and morale. In the 13th century, for instance, the Mongols destroyed entire cities just so word of mouth would spread to the next, with the goal of breaking morale and forcing it to capitulate before troops even arrived.
As technology has progressed, it has opened new frontiers in information warfare. From the Second World War to the 1991 Gulf War, planes dropped leaflets to spread rumours and propaganda. During the Vietnam War, English-language radio shows presented by Hanoi Hannah (real name Trịnh Thị Ngọ) taunted US troops with lists of their locations and casualties to lower morale.Radio propaganda also demonstrated its devastating effect when it was used to guide the Rwandan Genocide in 1994.
Cable TV came next. The 1991 Gulf War was the first major conflict broadcast on a 24 hour news cycle as opposed to the evening news. Instead of daily updates in bulletins or newspapers, people at home began receiving a continuous stream of information and images that was invariably biased towards national interests. This technological shift defined public perceptions of the war, and led historians to dub it the “CNN War”.
What we are witnessing today is the next step in this evolution – from print, radio and TV to social media. If the First Gulf War was the CNN war, the 2025 and 2026 conflict between the US, Israel and Iran can be thought of as the first TikTok War, and the first major AI War.
AI has ushered in new forms of information warfare that target perceptions, information environments, and trust itself. AI-generated videos in particular have fundamentally altered how states and non-state actors wage information warfare, manipulate populations, and compete not only in the Gulf, but in a global arena.
But this technology also convincingly and easily creates propaganda material that is obviously fiction. The most notable example is Iran’s viral Lego videos that have repeatedly – and very successfully – mocked Israel and the US throughout the war.
To fully understand the disruptive potential of AI videos, we can go back and look at the futurist speculation of dystopian science fiction novels.Science fiction author William Gibson coined the term “cyberspace” in his 1983 novel Neuromancer, describing it as a “consensual hallucination” – not reality, but rather a “graphic representation of data abstracted from banks of every computer in the human system”.
But when digital tools like AI videos and social media are used as weapons, the barrier between cyberspace and physical reality becomes permeable.They no longer create virtual reality, but what French media theorist Jean Baudrillard called “hyperreality”. This term describes a state in which the distinction between reality and a simulation of reality collapses, where the simulation feels “more real than real”.
Bauldrillard’s work is underpinned by the concept of “simulacra”: copies or representations of something that really exists. He classified simulacra in three orders. The first order is the pre-industrial counterfeit – a faithful copy or replica of a real object – while the second is the mechanically mass-produced object.
Third order simulacra are simulations, or signs with absolutely no physical form. Take Iran’s Lego videos, which depict scenes such as Trump and Netanyahu using the Iran War as a pretext to distract from the Epstein files while worshipping the pagan Canaanite deity Baal. They have nothing to do with the intentions of the Danish company that makes the ubiquitous plastic brick toys, and yet they have gained enormous traction as viral meme propaganda – both in the West and around the world.
AI is the message
Media theorist Marshall McLuhan’s oft-quoted phrase “the medium is the message” argues that, irrespective of the messages transmitted by media – be it newspaper, radio or TV – the medium in and of itself also tells us something.
The content of Iranian, US and Israeli AI videos are, naturally, entirely different, as each seeks to undermine their opponents’ narratives. But the medium of AI videos shared on social media also sends a message: these videos transcend an adversary’s borders in ways that previous media could not.
Unlike the pamphlets, radio broadcasts and TV networks of before, AI’s production and consumption are geographically unbound. Anyone can make and view it anywhere – whether in Tehran, Tel Aviv, Washington or anywhere else in the world. What this has created is a new era of borderless, decentralised, viral, digital public diplomacy.
Unlike Iran’s Lego videos, AI deepfakes are realistic but entirely fabricated content, making it difficult for viewers to discern truth from falsehood. Early iterations were crude and easily identifiable, but modern deepfakes have reached a level of photorealism and vocal authenticity that can deceive even experienced observers and automated detection systems.
During the so-called “12-Day War” in 2025 in Israel and Iran, AI deepfakes and video game footage sought to replicate real combat.Fabricated visuals included scenes of destroyed Israeli aircraft, collapsing buildings in Tel Aviv and its airport, while others showed Israeli strikes on Tehran that left a crater in an intersection and sent cars flying.
But believability isn’t always paramount. One widely-shared image of a downed Israeli F-35 fighter was taken from a flight simulator game. The plane was obviously too large compared to the bystanders on the ground, but this didn’t stop the image from going viral (it got 23 million views on TikTok) or from being spread by networks sympathetic to Russia seeking to demonstrate the vulnerability of American-made aircraft.
In total, the three most viewed deepfake videos during the 2025 war received 100 million views across social media. One deepfake video that circulated on Facebook even depicted Israeli officials pleading for the US to enforce a ceasefire, claiming “we cannot fight Iran any longer”.
This content was disseminated on TikTok, Telegram and X, where the AI chatbot Grok failed to identify fabricated videos that used footage from other conflicts.
Legal scholars have coined the phrases “liar’s dividend” and “truth decay” to characterise this ongoing trend towards fabricating reality. These terms refer to a media landscape where AI-driven fakes cast even legitimate evidence into doubt, eroding trust to the point where any image or medium can now be dismissed as a deepfake.
The most recent 2025 to 2026 wars demonstrate that, as states race to develop drones, missiles and defence systems, a parallel arms race is unfolding online. The digital revolution, coupled with advances in AI, has exponentially increased the speed, scale and sophistication of information manipulation. This conflict heralds a new era of information warfare, one where AI technologies are weaponised to influence, disrupt and destabilise adversaries.
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A Charlie Rose Global Conversation: Ken Rogoff is a distinguished Professor of International Economics and Summa Cum Laude graduate of Yale, with a PhD in economics from MIT.
Perhaps more interesting to some is that he is a brilliant grandmaster chess champion who had an extraordinary career, winning the U.S. Junior Championship before deciding at 18 to excel in economics.
He served as chief economist at the International Monetary Fund. After teaching at Princeton, he is now the Maurits C. Boas Chair of International Economics at Harvard University. This is a moment to talk about global economics, as the war in Iran has caused huge swings in the price of oil, gasoline, and fertilizer.
We will talk about many things, including the Iran war, the control of the Strait of Hormuz, the regime in Iran, and President Trump.
Also the global economy, debt, the dollar, interest rates, the Federal Reserve, and the risks of artificial intelligence. I’m pleased to welcome back Ken Rogoff.Charlie Rose283K subscribers
Highly sensitive children are often deeply perceptive, emotionally tuned in, and easily overwhelmed. They are not “problem children” to be fixed but temperamentally unique individuals who thrive (or struggle) depending on how environments and caregivers respond to them.
Scientific research shows that this sensitivity isn’t just a parenting buzzword: it’s a measurable individual difference (often referred to as environmental and sensory sensitivity), and it shapes how children respond to both supportive and stressful influences in their environment.
Here are three evidence-based ways to support your highly sensitive child.
1. Highly Sensitive Kids Thrive on Support That Builds Emotional Security
One of the most consistent findings in developmental science is that sensitive children are especially affected by the quality of caregiving they receive, for better and for worse.
In a large longitudinal study published in Development and Psychopathology, researchers followed more than 600 children aged 9 to 12 and found that children with higher environmental sensitivity benefited most from supportive parenting. Those who perceived their parents as less supportive were more likely to develop attachment vulnerabilities and internalizing problems like anxiety.
This research builds on a broader empirical framework showing that sensitive children process social cues and emotional context more deeply than peers, which can translate into heightened responsiveness to caregivers’ warmth and consistency.
To put this into practice, here are the first few steps you can follow:
Tune in before you respond. Reflective listening, which is the practice of naming what your child feels (“It sounds like that was really overwhelming”), helps them feel understood and less alone.
Be predictable and available. Routines and consistent responses help your child feel safe enough to explore their world.
Respond to distress with presence over problem-solving. Sometimes, emotional connection matters more than fixing the issue.
Sensitive children aren’t needy; they’re unusually responsive. Your responsiveness gives them a secure base from which to grow.
2. Highly Sensitive Kids Build Emotional Regulation Through Co-Regulation
Highly sensitive children tend to experience emotions intensely and may struggle with emotional regulation. This isn’t because they can’t regulate, but rather because their processing depth and reactivity are higher.
Research linking early sensitivity with later tendencies toward rumination and depressive symptoms highlights that, in the absence of supportive coping environments, these children are at risk of internalizing distress. For instance, in a 2022 longitudinal study in European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, researchers found that when highly sensitive children rated highly experienced permissive parenting, they developed greater rumination, a cognitive style linked to depression, compared with those in more structured environments.
The key takeaway from the science is that pre-verbal regulation support and co-regulation, combined with intentional emotional coaching, help sensitive children learn to manage intense feelings over time.
Here are some evidence-inspired strategies you can begin working with:
Label and mirror emotions. Rather than dismissing intense reactions (“it isn’t so bad”), say what you observe. For instance, “I see how upset you are, that sounds really hard.”
Co-regulate before you ask them to self-regulate. Use calm grounding techniques together, such as deep breathing, quiet walks, or soft music, before expecting them to manage independently.
Support problem-solving when calm. Once emotions settle, ask gentle questions like, “What do you think might help next time?”
Parent-child co-regulation teaches emotional language and coping skills rooted in connection, not control.
3. Highly Sensitive Kids Need Calm, Predictable Settings
At a basic level, environmental sensitivity reflects physiological and psychological responsiveness to external stimuli. These include lights, sounds, emotional reactivity, textures, transitions, and social contexts. According to 2023 research on sensory processing sensitivity, children with high sensitivity are more easily overstimulated than those with lower sensitivity. For this reason, they will benefit more from calm, supportive environments.
It’s important to note that creating a predictable, sensory-friendly space for your child doesn’t mean that you’re “coddling” or “spoiling” them. In reality, it’s akin to building a scaffolding that your child can use to engage with challenges without becoming overwhelmed.
Some science-guided ways that can shape your environment to set your highly sensitive child up for success include:
Routine anchors. Predictable daily rhythms such as morning routines, wind-down signals, and mealtime rituals reduce cognitive load and support emotional regulation.
Controlled sensory exposure. When environmental stimuli are intense, you can offer respite spaces by temporarily moving them to a quiet room, lowering the lighting intensity, or even providing a weighted blanket or noise-cancelling headphones.
Advance notice of transitions. Sensitive children process change more deeply. Giving a “heads up” before transitions (“In ten minutes we’re leaving for school”) helps them prepare mentally.
These strategies aren’t about limiting experiences. Instead, they provide a buffer of stability so sensitive children can fully benefit from positive stimuli and manage negative ones.
Why Highly Sensitive Children Benefit So Strongly From Supportive Contexts
The research converges on one clear pattern: environmental sensitivity functions as an amplifier of experience.
Sensitive children are more reactive to negative environments and more responsive to positive ones. This has sometimes been called differential susceptibility, meaning that sensitive children are disproportionately affected by both adverse and nurturing conditions.
This doesn’t imply fragility but responsiveness: the very trait that makes these children thoughtful, observant, creative, and compassionate can also intensify stress when unmet by supportive environments and intensify growth when well-supported.
In practice, this means:
Supportive parenting matters more for sensitive children than for less sensitive ones
Emotional skills taught with connection are internalized more deeply and last longer
Structured environments reduce overwhelm and support engagement
When parents understand why their sensitive child reacts strongly, they can move from frustration to strategy. Over time, these strategies help highly sensitive children learn that their sensitivity is not a liability or a weakness but a strength that can fuel deep empathy, creativity, and resilience when nurtured minds are paired with reliable support.
A version of this post also appears on Forbes.com.
A phone is locked into a Yondr pouch at New York City’s Brooklyn Museum. Photo: Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images
Phone-free bars, restaurants and entertainment experiences are on the rise while cellphone pouches are becoming an essential item at schools, weddings, proms and retreats, Axios’ Rebecca Falconer writes.
The surprise powerhouse behind thedigital detox movement: grassroots efforts among Gen Zers to switch off their phones.
By the numbers: 47% of those under 30 said they are striving to reduce screen time, compared with 32% of older Americans, a YouGov survey found.
Forty minutes into last night’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, tuxedoed Cabinet members and bejeweled journalists heard gunfire. They dove under tables at the Washington Hilton as President Trump was rushed offstage.“Get down! Get down!”people yelled.
Many attendees believed someone in the massive subterranean ballroom had been shot.
Axios was hosting a Cabinet member at one of our tables. Agents appeared, and the guest and their spouse vanished as if they’d levitated.
Law enforcement stopped an assailant, armed with guns and knives, as he rushed a security checkpoint in the lobby and fired at a Secret Service officer during the salad course.
The gunman — a guest at the historic hotel, where President Ronald Reagan was shot 45 years ago — was taken into custody and faces firearms and assault charges. Officials believe he acted alone.
He was apprehended in the hotel lobby before he got to the metal detectors, a source briefed by the FBI told Axios.
During a 10:35 p.m. ET appearance in the White House briefing room, Trump said those frightening minutes brought together the press and members of both political parties. “I saw a room that was just totally unified. It was a beautiful thing to see,” Trump said.
Trump saidthe officer was “shot from a very close distance with a very powerful gun” in his bullet-resistant vest “and the vest did the job.”Screenshot via Truth Social
The assailant was armed with a shotgun, handgun and multiple knives, according to interim D.C. Police Chief Jeffery Carroll. Carroll said the suspect was taken to a hospital for evaluation, though he wasn’t shot.
Vice President JD Vance was hustled out first. Agents initially covered Trump before bundling him and first lady Melania Trump from the room.
The room had been buzzing with speculation about how much Trump would needle the press in his remarks. The mentalist Oz Pearlman, who was at the head table, was set to perform.
The suspect is Cole Thomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, Calif., AP reports.
Social media posts that appear to match the suspect suggest he’s a highly educated tutor and amateur video game developer.
He earned a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from Caltech in 2017. He said he was involved in a Christian student fellowship and a campus group that battled with Nerf guns.Photo: Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Trump was attending the dinner for the first time in either of his terms. “I thought it was a tray going down. It was a pretty loud noise and it was from quite far away,” he said.Trump said he wanted to speak at the dinner after the threat was neutralized, but the Secret Service resisted.
Guests were initially asked to reseat themselves, but then were asked to leave the premises.
Behind the scenes: At first, Trump was held in a secure presidential suite at the hotel as organizers sought to resume the dinner. Waiters refolded napkins and refilled water glasses. Aides adjusted the teleprompter for the president. Then Trump returned to the White House on the advice of the Secret Service.The president said hewants the black-tie dinner to be rescheduled and held within 30 days.More photos.
2. Living history
President Trump is evacuated last night. Image from video: Bo Erickson/Reuters Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for D.C., during a late-night news conference, still in her ballgown: “Shots heard, and a whole room went silent. When I lifted my head, and when I looked up, every law enforcement officer was out there, as we all had our heads down … These are the men and women every day who do what they do silently, and they do it with courage and with dignity.”
White House Correspondents’ Association president Weijia Jiang, CBS News’ senior White House correspondent, during the network’s special report after President Trump spoke: “What we do isn’t about a big, fancy dinner party. In some ways, what happened tonight is actually a much better reflection of what it is we do.”“I was scrolling [after the head table was evacuated], just trying to find out what people were reporting. I saw many reporters reporting live from in the room, and tweeting from in the room. … [T]hey didn’t know if there was an ongoing threat. And that’s what reporters do. And that was on full display.
Americans are helping North Korean operatives with a scheme to fund authoritarian ruler Kim Jong Un’s nuclear ambitions.Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
This month, a federal judge in Massachusetts sentenced Kejia “Tony” Wang, a 42-year-old husband and father from New Jersey, to nine years in prison for spearheading what prosecutors described as an international fraud operation that placed North Korean IT workers in tech jobs at more than 100 American companies—including Fortune 500 firms.
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Over the course of three years, Wang’s network stole the identities of more than 80 Americans, forged fake social security cards and California driver’s licenses with photos of the North Korean operatives, filed false employment forms with the Department of Homeland Security, and doctored tax documents that went to the IRS and Social Security Administration. The scheme, in which the North Koreans got hired using Americans’ stolen identities, generated more than $5 million in salary payments from the victim companies. The subsequent fallout once it was uncovered caused at least $3 million in legal fees and computer clean-up costs at businesses in 28 states and the District of Columbia, court records show. Another participant in the scheme, Zhenxing Wang, 39—no relation to Kejia Wang, but a friend since both men arrived from China nearly 20 years ago—was sentenced to nearly eight years in prison. The court ordered both to forfeit $600,000, collectively, that they were paid from their part in the fraud.
The Wang prison terms bring the number of Americans convicted for aiding North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s government to at least seven since last year. The group includes a former active-duty U.S. Army soldier, an Arizona woman, a nail technicianfrom Maryland, and two men from California. All earned thousands of dollars for helping North Koreans collect millions in salary for doing remote IT jobs.The wave of sentencing began in 2025 with a guilty plea by Christina Chapman, a 51-year-old woman who cared for 90 laptops in her home while helping her North Korean handlers get jobs at 309 companies, raking in $17.1 million. The salaries are diverted to Kim’s government to pay for nuclear weapons development, officials say.
“North Korea turns around and uses the money it steals through these operations to fund the unlawful development of weapons of mass destruction—nuclear bombs, for example, and ballistic missiles with which to target the United States and our allies,” Jonathan Fritz, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asia Pacific affairs, said at a UN committee meeting on the North Korean fraud scheme in January.
The recent spate of prison terms is meant to be a deterrent to curious Americans who see participating in the scheme as a get-money-quick option, but investigators say this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the U.S. muscle undergirding the fraud scheme. Some American facilitators are sophisticated, some are naive, and others walked away from the scheme years ago. However, involvement in this fraud isn’t casual. American identities are still circulating through the North Korean fraud apparatus after they’ve completely moved on with their lives, investigators say.
The scheme relies on two types of American identities. In the Wang case, they were harvested from background-check databases and attached to forged documents without the real Americans’ knowledge. In others, identities are willingly rented by participants who might go even further by showing up for interviews, accepting laptops, giving urine samples or blood for drug tests, or sitting in offices pretending to work.They take a cut of the salary in exchange for providing cover to the North Korean operators so they can pass as American IT workers. In practice, investigators say, the two categories blur. Some facilitators are unwitting victims while others claim identity theft after the fact. To the North Korean IT workers, both are interchangeable.
The North Korean IT worker scheme, in which operatives get remote tech jobs at U.S. and European companies, is an important part of a broad campaign of malfeasance by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) that has generated about $2.8 billion in the past two years to help fund the country’s nuclear weapon ambitions, according to the UN’s Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Committee. The committee, which tracks DPRK sanctions violations and evasion tactics, revealed in January that the scheme has now victimized 40 countries around the globe. A large portion of that total is the result of crypto theft, but the IT worker scheme reliably generates $250 million to $600 million per year in fraudulent salaries, the UN has found.
“North Koreans are taking American jobs, and they’re stealing cryptocurrency from American owners of said cryptocurrency,” said Fritz. “A North Korean IT worker can live in Laos, steal the identity of a Ukrainian online, and then use that identity to defraud a U.S. company into hiring them—often for remote jobs with salaries in the hundreds of thousands of dollars range.”
Artificial intelligence has added an entirely new boost to the scheme. At the UN committee meeting, Evan Gordenker of cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks described a tactic his team had observed. In real-time, AI converted a North Korean accent into a convincing American-sounding voice during live job interviews. Gordenker said the North Korean regime has built an industrial hiring machine in which getting a job is itself the job, with specialists for crafting resumes, sitting for interviews, and others who do the actual work once a position is secured.
“Your citizens are competing against a mechanized system that has been honed over years of training to exploit how we hire,” Gordenker told delegates at the UN committee meeting in January. “Until we change the fundamental system of hiring, I don’t think there is anything we can do centrally to make sure that this doesn’t happen.”
Additionally, as the U.S. government’s priorities have shifted toward Venezuela, China, and Iran, tracking DPRK infiltration could see fewer resources, said Michael “Barni” Barnhart, lead investigator from cybersecurity firm DTEX, and an expert in tracking DPRK IT workers. The U.S. participants play a key role in the scheme and much about the extent of their work is unclear. Barnhart said he often sees varying levels of participation by Americans in investigations. Some work as identity brokers—providing the fake documents, names, and identifying information to North Koreans, while others agree to appear on camera for video interviews. Others show up to take drug tests or go into the office to fill a seat and follow a return-to-office directive while their work tasks are completed by North Koreans.
“We will immediately knee-jerk assume they are a victim,” said Barnhart about the American conspirators. “And then once we start peeling back the onion, it’s like, ‘Oh, you’re enjoying this.’”
Cybersecurity firms, fintechs, and crypto-related firms see numerous fake applications from DPRK workers, said Barnhart. Insider intelligence firm DTEX, where Barnhart works, had 87 North Korean IT workers apply for jobs in recent years, he added.
The Sting
Barnhart and the other investigators in his network have been tracking several American identities for years that have circulated through the scheme and, despite being flagged by cybersecurity firms and law enforcement, have remained active as of last month.These real identities offer cover, a true social security number, and an identity veneer that the DPRK IT workers can use in their schemes to get jobs, even if the real American, who might have initially lent their identity to the scheme, has stopped participating.
Barnhart and investigators he works with—many of whom work under false identities to avoid retaliation—set up an operation in 2024 to try to lure DPRK IT workers and American facilitators into the open to trace their tactics and methods. A partner created a front company and posted some job listings. It wasn’t long before a candidate applied claiming to hail from Austin, Texas. On video calls however, the candidate didn’t show any familiarity with typical Texan culture.
“There was nothing about football, nothing about barbecue,” said Barnhart, who spoke during an DTEX panel in San Francisco in March. “You just peel back the onion a little bit, and you can see that the lies fall apart. Everything’s an inch deep.”
Barnhart and his network wanted to see how far the scheme would stretch. They told the worker he needed to come on-site for identity verification where they expected the ruse to collapse.
Instead, a young man named “David” walked into the facility in person, presented a real government-issued ID, signed the paperwork, and passed the screening. David, whose last name Fortune is withholding for privacy reasons, was not the same person from the video interviews, he was a local proxy—a real American lending his identity to someone else he likely never met face-to-face, said Barnhart.
“We thought it was a stolen identity until the real dude showed up,” Barnhart said. “That’s where we got to the facilitator stuff.”
The David who showed up claiming to be the applicant appeared to be a college student at the time. Barnhart surmised he was picking up some extra cash in a side deal he might not have truly understood.
“When he was doing this with us, he was in college,” said Barnhart. “I bet he was just, like, a poor college kid.”
But the operation didn’t end with David. When Barnhart’s operation went to ship a “company laptop” to David in Texas, David said he’d moved and asked that it be routed to Moorhead, Minnesota instead. There, a different facilitator, a man named “Aaron,” accepted the package under David’s name, said Barnhart. Aaron, whose last name Fortune is also withholding, got the laptop, set it up, and arranged it so a North Korean IT worker could perform the job tasks. Barnhart’s team had digital forensics noting every step.
“We have confirmed. We sent hardware and infrastructure to his home and it was accepted,” Barnhart said. “Through the partner company we were working with, we were able to see forensics on the laptop to show it was operational at his location.”
Multiple cybersecurity operators and law enforcement were alerted to Aaron and David’s roles, but as far as Barnhart is aware, action has not yet been taken. Barnhart suspects that their work inside the scheme might be so low level that it doesn’t meet the threshold for law enforcement working with limited resources.
Fortune corresponded with David and Aaron after being given their contact information from Barnhart.
David denied multiple times via LinkedIn messages that he ever accepted a laptop on behalf of anyone else and said he was unaware of any employment scheme. After being contacted by Fortune with questions, David said his identity was stolen and that he has discovered 10 jobs linked to his identity since 2021 when he was 19 years old.
“I actually went ahead and checked my IRS transcripts over the weekend and noticed that there were tons of w2s dating back to when I was 19 that I never applied or work [sic] for,” David wrote in a LinkedIn message this month. “Someone definitely stole my identity back then and applied to jobs without my knowledge. Many had addresses from a completely different state. I went ahead and filled out the form 14039 to report it to the [IRS]. I also reported it to FTC.”
Aaron denied any knowledge of a laptop or North Korean IT worker scheme.
“I don’t know anything about that,” Aaron wrote in an email to Fortune.
Regardless of how much the American facilitators know or don’t know, the DPRK scheme relies on their participation, prosecutors said.
“North Korean IT worker schemes would not be successful without U.S.-based facilitators,” said Assistant Attorney General John Eisenberg in an April sentencing memo. The facilitators “assist overseas remote IT workers by operating laptop farms, creating fictitious front companies and associated financial accounts, defrauding U.S. companies through the use of false and fake identification documents, and pocketing substantial sums of money for their roles.”
Identities that Never Die
Whether or not Aaron or David were part of a scheme wittingly or unwittingly, their identities are still circulating through the North Korean IT worker pipeline, said Barnhart.
It sets the North Korean scheme apart from other garden-variety frauds because after a facilitator walks away, gets arrested, or just stops participating, their identities keep working. By mid-2024 for instance, Barnhart thought he’d seen the last of Aaron and David. In June 2025, the FBI announced it had conducted 29 raids across 16 states, and had seized 21 fraudulent websites that were part of the scheme.
“I thought I’d never see [them] again, and moved on,” said Barnhart.
Then in winter 2026, another investigator colleague texted him a screenshot showing that the two names were listed as board members of an American employment company for tech workers. The company serves as a front for North Koreans in the scheme so that they appear to be vetted, background-checked workers, when in reality they use stolen or fake identities shielding their identities as North Korean operatives.
“I was like, dammit,” said Barnhart.
Barnhart said his team has also pinpointed a third identity floating around that also goes by “David” but with a different last name. The person behind all three identities, the one actually doing the work and logging into the computers from abroad, was tied to a single North Korean operative Barnhart and other investigators had been tracking for years.
The real Davids and Aaron may have walked away from whatever arrangement they once had but their names and digital footprints have taken on a life of their own inside the North Korean apparatus. Fake LinkedIn profiles with their names have been created and deleted, and resumes with their identities still land on recruiters desks. The fake Aaron and the fake Davids are still “very alive, very well, and still doing IT work,” said Barnhart.
The real people behind these identities “might not even know they’re still part of the scam,” said Barnhart.
Victim or Conspirator?
The David-Aaron issue illustrates what can be a murky line between cybersecurity research, law enforcement, and responsible hiring. It’s hard to draw a clean line and it might shift over time.
Mitchell Green, a manager at Aon’s Cyber Solutions unit who spoke on the panel with Barnhart, said he has worked on more than a dozen cases that have uncovered and fired remote North Korean IT workers employed at companies. He’s seen a wide range of facilitator involvement.
“Some of them are very smart, and they’re getting really involved in the operation and they’re essentially a force multiplier,” Green said. “We have others who are very unassuming.”
The grooming process can also be extensive, Green said. North Korean IT workers invest heavily into building relationships with American conspirators, sometimes over months, in order to cultivate trust.
“We’ve seen them actually, in some cases, helping the facilitators with homework,” he said. “There’s a lot of social engineering that happens on that side, too.”
Some DPRK workers have really leaned in on American corporate culture and norms. Barnhart said he’s seen workers realize they’re about to be caught and announce that they are taking medical leave. U.S. companies are typically restricted from contacting employees who are on protected leave. In one instance, an employee got another six paychecks because he understood he could use that time to generate additional revenue for the scheme, said Barnhart.
But for every Kejia Wang who receives a near-decade prison sentence, there are facilitators who were never raided, never charged, and whose stolen or borrowed identities remain permanently lodged in an operation they may have had a hand in during a moment of weakness. At the UN event, Palo Alto’s Gordenker framed the stakes in human terms. The remote jobs that North Korean operatives are stealing—flexible, well-paying positions that can be done from home—are exactly the kind of work that Americans with disabilities, caregiving responsibilities, or limited mobility depend on.
“These are typically well-paying jobs, sometimes jobs that can be taken from home,” Gordenker said. “Folks that have issues with accessibility, folks that have children that they must care for, folks that are caring for elders—these are the types of jobs that would be gold mines for those families.”
In 2001, Fortune first convened “The Smartest People We Know,” bringing together CEOs and founders, builders and investors, thinkers and doers. Since then, Fortune Brainstorm Tech has been the place where bold ideas collide. From June 8–10, we will return to Aspen—where it all began—to mark 25 years of Brainstorm. Register now.
Amanda Gerut is the west coast editor at Fortune, overseeing publicly traded businesses, executive compensation, Securities and Exchange Commission regulations, and investigations.
The Valero refinery in Benicia, Calif., is closing in April 2026.Carlos Avila Gonzalez—San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images
Europe is facing more widespread fuel shortages heading into the summer as the war in the Middle East drags on, but shortfalls—especially for jet fuel—will soon spread to California and the broader West Coast as the global energy supply shock ripples across the world.
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While the U.S. leads the world in crude oil production, California is not able to enjoy the bounty as much as the rest of the country.The Golden State—the fourth-largest economy in the world—essentially operates as an island sandwiched between the Pacific Ocean on one side and mountainous terrain on the other. That makes it difficult and expensive to build oil and fuel pipelines. A tougher regulatory environment and heightened fuel standards have also made the state’s refineries less economical over the years.
The bottom line is California must import a lot of its oil, gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel from Asia—a region that is itself currently struggling with shortages because of its reliance on Middle Eastern supplies.
And, in something of a perfect storm of unfortunate timing, the Iran war coincides with the recent shuttering of the Phillips 66 Los Angeles refinery and the April closure of Valero Energy’s Benicia refinery near San Francisco.The two complexes accounted for nearly 20% of California’s oil-refining capacity. Valero also is weighing the future of its Wilmington refinery near Los Angeles.
“It’s real terrible timing for California to see the loss of two refineries at a time when Asia is struggling with oil supplies of its own,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.
“If we don’t have some concrete [peace] deal here in the next three weeks, then I’m really nervous for the West Coast this summer in terms of jet fuel,” De Haan told Fortune. “That’s not going to be great for California’s economy.”
Norse Atlantic Airways announced this week the cancellation of all its summer flights from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Delta Air Lines is canceling a handful of U.S. flights for now from Detroit to New York. Air Canada cut some flights to New York. United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said on his April 22 earnings call that United is raising fares up to 20% and proactively canceling flights at off-peak times. And struggling Spirit Airlines—pushed over the cliff by the spike in fuel prices—may need a federal bailout to survive.
The biggest headline in Europe this week was German airline Lufthansa axing 20,000 flights through October.
“It’s not so much gasoline supply on the West Coast that I’d be worried about yet, but it’s jet fuel out of LAX, San Francisco, Seattle, and then it’s diesel,” De Haan said, arguing that nationwide reductions, especially of new flight routes, are likely in order to conserve fuel. “I would look for a lot of route cancellations potentially this summer.”
Refineries primarily churn out gasoline to meet passenger vehicle demand, so supply shortages of refined products typically hit jet fuel first and then diesel. Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii, and Alaska all stand to be among the most impacted as well.
Plans for new fuel and refined product pipelines into California are underway, including from Phillips 66, but the earliest those would come online is 2029.
The California Energy Commission told Fortune that jet fuel stocks remain adequate and within historic norms, although supplies are admittedly tight. For West Coast travelers, the near-term risks are sustained higher prices and airline schedule adjustments—not the physical shortfalls that Europe is facing.
But would that remain the case in June if the Strait of Hormuz energy choke point is still blocked? “Our analysis is thorough and ongoing, but we can’t provide a definitive answer on that kind of forecasting,” the CEC said.
One partially saving grace is the Trump administration’s decision to temporarily waive the 106-year-old Jones Act, which requires cargo ships moving between U.S. ports to be U.S. built, flagged, and manned, reducing the number of vessels available to move crude oil and refined products between domestic ports.
The waiver would allow more ships, for instance, to move fuel from the U.S. Gulf Coast through the Panama Canal and up to California to help alleviate shortfalls. The CEC confirmed the waiver is bringing incremental supply to the state.
While the White House previously touted the Jones Act waiver as a move to lessen spikes in fuel prices—that impact is minimal—the bigger difference it’s making is the eased logistical movement of supplies to needier domestic areas.
A White House official said California and Alaska count among the biggest beneficiaries of jet fuel deliveries from the Jones Act waiver. And the 60-day waiver could be extended.
Otherwise, California must compete internationally for more expensive and increasingly scarce fuel imports from Asia. The state leans on South Korea, Singapore, Japan, India, and the Middle East for more of its oil and fuel.
“The risk is California has to compete on price to get those barrels, and what’s an already expensive market becomes really expensive,” said oil forecaster Dan Pickering, founder of Pickering Energy Partners consulting and research firm.
While the rest of the country is worried about fuel prices and not physical shortages, California is a “different animal,” Pickering said. “The risk in California is both its price and its availability. And because availability is tough, the price goes up even more.”
Already, California’s gasoline prices are 45% above the national average. The national average on April 23 for a gallon of regular unleaded was $4.03; meanwhile, it’s a U.S.-leading $5.85 in California. And there’s a $2 gap between diesel prices in California compared with the national average: $7.49 per gallon versus $5.47.
Despite the geographical and regulatory challenges of building new fuel pipelines to California, several projects have popped up to help fill the gaps left by the refinery closures.
Phillips 66 and Kinder Morgan plan to build the Western Gateway Pipeline system from Texas to Phoenix and southern California. Pipeline developers Oneok and HF Sinclair are both weighing competing projects.
But the Western Gateway project isn’t slated for completion until 2029, so bridging that gap will prove to be the challenge, De Haan said.
“It’s great news for California because they’ll have better-connected markets,” De Haan said. “California will be a little bit less of a petro island.”
Kinder Morgan CEO Kim Dang said on the company’s earnings call this week that the war in the Middle East highlights the need for the project.
“California has to import some of its supply, and that makes it subject to the variability in global markets,” Dang said. “Instead of bringing in a fair amount of product over the water, they’ll now be bringing in supply from Texas and from the eastern United States. The other thing it does is it serves the Phoenix market, which is also right now reliant on the California refining capacity.
“I think it’s a great solution for California and for Arizona to be able to access domestic supply, as opposed to having to be reliant on the international market,” Dang added.
In the near term, though, Pickering fears the world is still “dangerously complacent” about the war and the greatest energy supply shock in history. Oil and fuel shortages are almost guaranteed at least through the end of this year, and Pickering doesn’t see a peace deal occurring overnight.
“If they don’t [make a deal], in a month or two, the problems that we’re seeing in Asia are going to be everywhere,” Pickering said. And if June is when shortages really kick in, he noted, “June is a day closer every day.”
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Jordan Blum is the Energy editor at Fortune, overseeing coverage of a growing global energy sector for oil and gas, transition businesses, renewables, and critical minerals.
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Living history
President Trump is evacuated last night. Image from video: Bo Erickson/Reuters Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for D.C., during a late-night news conference, still in her ballgown: “Shots heard, and a whole room went silent. When I lifted my head, and when I looked up, every law enforcement officer was out there, as we all had our heads down … These are the men and women every day who do what they do silently, and they do it with courage and with dignity.” 
