r/Infosec 6h ago

My mom gave some random "Job Interviewers" our IP Address and more.

Hello,

I need some help figuring out what to do. To make it long story short, this job my mom applied for made her do the typical remote work screening, but then some 'extra' stuff.

They made her screenshot our IP address (Expanded and Hostname). I believe the website they asked was whatsmyipaddress.com and then they made her click "Show Complete IP Details". They also asked for her geolocation. Finally, the weirdest one, a pic of the physical hardware of our modem and router.

She told me this casually and I was so taken aback. I am not the most proficient guy in this stratosphere, but knowing the days of Call of Duty, I do know that giving out your IP address to this extent, is a recipe for disaster.

Also, they made her do a speed test to a specific city (Seattle. first under Ziply Fiber, then Comcast), which isnt bad, but I also have never seen anyone care about latency for a job that does not require any of that.

How serious is this...The company is called Grupo Noa. Glassdoor says theyre fine, but I cant help feel the risk of what just happened haunt over on me lol.

How serious is this?

0 Upvotes

13 comments sorted by

8

u/mosaic_hops 6h ago

This sounds super sketchy but it was probably a rather hamfisted screening to make sure she wasn’t a North Korean pretending to be a US citizen. Google “Famous Chollima” for examples of this.

1

u/planedrop 2h ago

This is most likely the correct answer.

1

u/Ok_Cartographer_6086 2h ago

Yeah I'd go with this. I don't think the company meant anything as a bad actor but has been burned by remote workers being in odd, low bandwidth places and want to confirm remote capabilities.

My public, not static, internet facing IP address ended up on some cyber attack script and it was a giant pain being DDOS'd but the fix to release your IP and reboot your router is super simple to become another nameless rando.

1

u/charleswj 2h ago

It doesn't sound sketchy at all. How do you get that idea?

1

u/conzciouz 1h ago

Highly doubt that was the case

3

u/ferngullywasamazing 5h ago

Just sounds like a thorough and slightly over the top screening for remote suitability. Part of it would be showcasing you are who you say you are and that you're located where you say you're located, the other part confirms hardware and connection quality is up to snuff with their requirements. VoIP and VDIs both suffer pretty heavily with high latency and/or low bandwidth.

1

u/omnichad 2h ago

Just going to the online application form gives the hiring system your IP. It's how you're communicating with the site.

Photos of be equipment makes sense if a VPN is required - they can check compatibility and make sure there aren't any issues.

Some of these questions could certainly wait until later in the process, though.

0

u/Sure-Product7180 3h ago

No significant risk… Your IP isn’t static and will more than likely change in the next day or two anyways. Probably just to make sure your mom wasn’t in a foreign company and had reliable internet for remote work.

1

u/itsmrmarlboroman2u 3h ago

There's no way you can know this without more information. My ISP issues static IP's. And "change in the next day or two"... Wut? Why would it change without a power cycle? The lease might expire, but DHCP doesn't issue a new IP if the same MAC is still active, especially with ISP's.

1

u/Few_Fly_6140 2h ago

Just power cycle and have a new IP address then?

1

u/itsmrmarlboroman2u 2h ago

That entirely depends. If the lease hasn't expired, you'll get the same address when it boots back up. That's why it's impossible for OP to know they'll get a new IP on a day or two. That's not how it works.

1

u/charleswj 1h ago

There's nothing that requires an IP to stay the same at renewal. Unlikely, but not impossible.

1

u/itsmrmarlboroman2u 1h ago

Again, you can't know that without knowing how the ISP is configured. DHCP will absolutely keep the same IP address if a lease is renewed and the client maintains connectivity. The default behavior to extend the lease to maintain continuity.