Welcome back to this week’s P | A | C | T news, your newsletter by Tech Talent North.
As Tech Talent North, Eastern Edition kicks off today, conversations around hiring, growth and building stronger teams are taking centre stage. There’s another topic increasingly finding its way into those discussions: trust.
Candidate fraud has become more sophisticated, more convincing and much harder to spot, with traditional hiring signals no longer tell the full story.
Today, Terry Cutler, Founder & CEO of Cyology Labs, takes the breakout stage at TTNE with When Your New Hire Isn’t Who You Think. Ahead of the session, we spoke with Terry about why hiring is becoming one of the newest front lines in cybersecurity and what HR leaders should be paying closer attention to now.
Key takeaways:
- Candidate fraud is becoming a cybersecurity issue, not just a hiring issue
- Remote hiring has created new openings for deception
- Small process changes can significantly reduce risk without hurting candidate experience
Hiring Is Becoming A Security Conversation
For years, organizations focused security efforts on systems, infrastructure and networks. The assumption was simple: threats sat outside the business and the goal was keeping them out.
Terry believes the landscape now looks very different.
“What’s changed is speed, scale and deception.”
Attackers are no longer relying on obvious methods. They’re using AI, automation, stolen credentials and social engineering to appear legitimate. Increasingly, they are targeting people and trust itself.
Hiring now sits inside that shift.
“HR and People & Culture teams are often the first line of trust inside an organization.”
That changes the role hiring plays because recruitment is no longer only about identifying talent. It’s become part of protecting access to systems, intellectual property, payroll and sensitive information.
Traditional Hiring Processes Were Built For A Different Environment
Most hiring processes were designed around assumptions that worked well for years.
Strong experience, positive interviews and references often created enough confidence to move forward.
Terry shared a story that highlights how quickly that environment has changed.
A cybersecurity company hired what appeared to be a strong remote employee. The résumé checked out, interviews went well and nothing raised concerns.
Shortly after onboarding, security teams noticed unusual activity coming from the company-issued device.
After investigating further, they discovered the employee had been operating under a false identity.
The situation was contained quickly but the broader lesson stayed with Terry.
“HR did everything right based on a traditional hiring process and it still wasn’t enough.”
The issue wasn’t poor hiring practice; it was an infiltration attempt designed to exploit trust itself.
Candidate Fraud Looks Very Different Today
Many people still think of hiring fraud as résumé exaggeration or inflated experience.
What Terry is seeing is significantly more sophisticated.
“We’re seeing fake identities, proxy interviews, AI-assisted answers, coached candidates, manipulated résumés.”
Some candidates appear polished throughout interviews, only for something to shift once they join the organization.
Terry described one situation where a candidate delivered perfect answers and performed exceptionally well throughout the process. Once hired, it quickly became clear they could not operate at the level they demonstrated.
“What likely happened is someone else was feeding them answers live during the interview.”
The person you interview is not always the person who arrives on day one.
Remote Hiring Removed More Than Geography
Remote hiring expanded access to talent and gave organizations flexibility. It also removed forms of friction many teams relied on without fully realizing it.
Face-to-face interactions naturally created opportunities to validate identity and observe behavioural signals. Virtual environments changed that dynamic.
“You’re no longer meeting people in person, checking body language the same way or validating identity face to face.”
That places more weight on smaller details.
Terry pointed to signals that deserve closer attention: repeated reluctance to turn cameras on, delayed responses that sound overly polished or inconsistencies across platforms and documents.
One signal on its own rarely means much and patterns can tell a different story.
“Small things add up fast.”
Security Should Feel Natural
The solution isn’t creating friction or turning hiring into an interrogation process.
“You don’t need to turn hiring into an interrogation.”
Terry’s recommendations were surprisingly simple:
- Live video at key stages
- Skills validation
- Strong employment verification
- Role-based onboarding access rather than broad permissions
One example stood out.
A candidate progressing smoothly through interviews suddenly became hesitant when asked to switch on their camera live. Technical issues surfaced, connection concerns followed, with privacy concerns appearing soon after.
“That one small step exposed something that would have otherwise slipped through.”
Simple changes often create the strongest signals.
A Final Thought
Trust still matters and it always will.
Terry’s perspective challenges something more specific: the assumption that trust on its own is enough.
“Don’t assume the person on the screen is who they claim to be just because the process feels normal.”
Hiring has always involved judgement. Today, judgement increasingly needs stronger verification around it.
The organizations adapting well are not becoming more suspicious. They are becoming more intentional. They are protecting candidate experience while recognizing that hiring now sits much closer to risk, security and business resilience than many teams realized even a few years ago.
Conversations like this are exactly why Tech Talent North exists. The most valuable discussions in HR increasingly sit at the intersection of people, technology and challenges many teams are still learning to navigate in real time.
Tech Talent North, Eastern Edition is underway today in Toronto. If you’re not joining us this time, we’ll see you at Tech Talent North, Western Edition on November 17, 2026 at the Vancouver Convention Centre West, where Canada’s People and Culture leaders in tech come together to share what’s changing and what leaders need to prepare for next.