Amazon announced that it has blocked more than 1,800 applications suspected of being linked to North Korea, as accusations grow that Pyongyang uses IT professionals to circumvent sanctions and finance its weapons program.
“North Korean citizens are seeking to obtain telecommuting jobs in the IT field with companies around the world, especially in the United States,” said Amazon’s head of security, Stephen Schmidt, in a post on the social network LinkedIn.
According to him, the number of applications detected increased by almost a third in the last year, many of them associated with so-called “laptop farms” – discreet installations, with computers physically located in the United States and connected to the internet through North American operators, but controlled remotely from abroad.
The phenomenon “is not limited to Amazon”, warned Schmidt, adding that this type of scheme “is likely occurring on a large scale across the sector”.
To identify fraudulent applications, the company has relied on detecting incorrectly formatted phone numbers and suspicious academic diplomas.
In July, a US citizen was sentenced to more than eight years in prison for running one of these “laptop farms”, which allowed North Korean citizens to get remote jobs at more than 300 US technology companies. According to authorities, the scheme generated more than 17 million dollars (around 14.4 million euros) for the benefit of the defendant and the North Korean regime.
In 2024, another US citizen was detained for helping North Korean workers get jobs at companies in the United Kingdom and the United States.
“The North Korean regime sent thousands of highly qualified computer professionals around the world, with the aim of deceiving companies and circumventing international sanctions, in order to continue financing its dangerous weapons program”, declared prosecutor Henry Leventis at the time.
South Korean intelligence last year warned that North Korean agents were using LinkedIn to pose as recruiters and contact South Korean defense professionals with the aim of obtaining sensitive information.
Under sanctions imposed by the United Nations, citizens of North Korea are prohibited from working and generating income abroad.
A report published in 2024 by the North American organization 38 North revealed that North Korean programmers – hiding their true nationality – managed to obtain contracts to work on animation projects subcontracted by companies such as the Japanese HBO Max and the North American Amazon.