Amazon blocks 1,800 job applications from suspected North Korean agents

An Amazon executive said the U.S. tech giant has blocked more than 1,800 job applications from suspected North Korean agents.

Stephen Schmidt, Amazon’s chief security officer, said in a LinkedIn post that North Koreans were trying to apply for remote IT jobs using stolen or fake identities.

“Their goals are often simple: get hired, get paid, and then turn the wages back into funding the regime’s weapons programs,” he said, adding that the trend could happen on a large scale across the industry, especially in the United States.

U.S. and South Korean authorities have warned of cyber fraud committed by Pyongyang agents.

Last year, Amazon’s North Korean job applications increased by nearly a third. Mr Schmidt said in his post.

He said the agents often work with people who manage “laptop farms” – computers located in the United States and run remotely from abroad.

The company uses a combination of artificial intelligence (AI) tools and employee verification to screen job applications, he said.

Schmidt said the tactics used by such fraudsters have become more sophisticated.

Bad actors leverage compromised credentials to hijack dormant LinkedIn accounts to gain verification. He said their goal was to make real software engineers appear credible and urged companies to report suspicious job applications to authorities.

Schmidt warned employers to be aware of fraud in North Korean job applications, including malformed phone numbers and educational mismatches.

In June, the U.S. government said it had discovered 29 “laptop farms” Illegal operations are happening all over the country Designed by North Korean IT workers.

The Justice Department said they used stolen or forged American identities to help North Korean nationals find jobs in the United States.

It also prosecuted U.S. brokers who helped North Korean agents find jobs.

In July, a woman from Arizona Sentenced to more than eight years in prison Operated a laptop farm to help North Korean IT employees obtain remote jobs at more than 300 U.S. companies.

The US Justice Department said the scheme netted her and Pyongyang more than $17m (£12.6m) in illicit gains.