Overview

• Nearly half of targeted employers fall outside IT, with frequent attempts in finance, health care, manufacturing, public administration, and professional services.
• About 27% of targeted roles are outside the U.S., with notable activity in the UK, Canada, and Germany, plus India, Australia, Singapore, Switzerland, Japan, France, and Poland.
• Applicants are moving beyond software development into payments processing, back‑office finance, and engineering support roles to secure remote access and wages, and Okta says its data captures only a small slice of the activity.
• Okta observed a marked rise since mid‑2023 in interviews at AI organizations (about 50 this year) and sustained outreach to healthcare and medical‑tech (about 85 this year).
• Security firms and U.S. agencies report growth in the scheme and urge layered defenses such as rigorous ID checks, supervised skills tests, least‑privilege access, vendor controls, and threat‑sharing.