Comment by krisoft

> what exactly does the kvm do?

In this context the abbreviation stands for “keyboard, video, and mouse”. These are hardware devices you physically connect to a computer and then you can remotely see the computer’s screen and input keyboard and mouse inputs to it via the network.

> It's just stated that it has an Ethernet port and an HDMI and therefore can remote control a computer?

Yes. That is the purpose of a KVM device.

> he said the North Koreans are putting them on people's computers

What is described here is a scam perpetrated by North Korean state to gain funds despite economic sanctions trying to prevent it from doing so.

The scheme involves someone pretending to be a legitimate remote worker working from a legitimate location, but in reality they are performing the work from North Korea. The person working the remote IT job in North Korea gets a pitance, while the state pockets the larger part of the money paid to them.

As part of the scheme the remote worker gets a laptop from their western employer. Corporate IT installs all kind of security measures on the laptop, but also grants it means to access internal resources. The scammer can’t ship the laptop to North Korea and use it directly because if that gets detected they will be found out and fired. They also can’t install software based remote access tools because corporate IT might detect those too. So they use a KVM to remotely use the laptop from North Korea and stay on the job as long as they can.

> as if North Koreans breaking into people's apartments is a common occurrence

The scheme does not involve North Koreans breaking into apartments.

> And why did the FBI contact him about this?

Who knows. Jeff seems to have described how to use a particular cheap KVM in the past. Likely this KVM device is used by the scammers. Maybe he has connections to the KVMs manufacturer? Maybe the FBI thought he does?

> I always thought kvm was the Linux kennel virtualization system...

Same abreviation, but different thing.