Amazon Blocks Over 1,800 Job Applications from Suspected North Korean Agents
Amazon has blocked more than 1,800 job applications from suspected North Korean agents, according to a LinkedIn post by the company's chief security officer. The applicants reportedly tried to secure remote IT roles using stolen or fake identities, with wages intended to be funneled back to fund North Korea's weapons programs.
Over the past year, Amazon noted a nearly one-third increase in job applications linked to North Korea. These operatives typically collaborate with laptop farms based in the US but work remotely from locations outside the country.
To combat this, Amazon uses a combination of AI tools and human verification to screen applications. Indicators of fraudulent North Korean applications include incorrectly formatted phone numbers and mismatched education histories. Fraudsters hijack dormant LinkedIn accounts using leaked credentials to gain verification and target software engineers.
In related developments, the US Department of Justice announced in June that 29 laptop farms were operating illegally across the US. These farms used stolen or forged American identities to help North Korean workers obtain US jobs, leading to indictments against US brokers. In July, an Arizona woman was sentenced to more than eight years in prison for operating a laptop farm that helped North Korean IT workers secure remote jobs at over 300 US companies, generating over $17 million in illicit gains for both herself and Pyongyang.
