Amazon Blocks Over 1,800 Job Applications from Suspected North Korean Agents
Amazon has reported blocking more than 1,800 job applications from suspected North Korean agents, according to the company's chief security officer, Stephen Schmidt. These operatives attempted to apply for remote IT roles using stolen or fake identities, with the intention of securing employment and funneling wages back to North Korea's weapons programs.
Over the past year, Amazon has observed nearly a 33% increase in job applications from individuals linked to North Korea, suggesting this trend may be widespread within the US. These agents reportedly work with so-called "laptop farms" located inside the United States but operated remotely from abroad. To prevent infiltration, Amazon uses a combination of AI tools and manual staff verification to screen job applications.
Fraudsters have been known to hijack dormant LinkedIn accounts through leaked credentials to gain verification and target genuine software engineers for their schemes. Indicators of fraudulent applications include incorrectly formatted phone numbers and education histories that do not match the applicant’s profile. Firms are urged to report any suspicious applications to authorities.
In June, the US Department of Justice revealed that 29 illegal laptop farms in the US used stolen or forged American identities to help North Korean IT workers obtain US jobs, leading to indictments of US brokers involved in the scheme. In July, an Arizona woman was sentenced to over eight years in prison for running such a laptop farm, which helped North Korean IT workers secure remote jobs at more than 300 US companies and generated over $17 million in illicit gains for her and the Pyongyang regime.
