Amazon Rejects 1,800 Job Applicants Over Suspected North Korea Links

Amazon has barred over 1,800 job applicants suspected of having ties to North Korean operatives. Stephen Schmidt, Amazon’s chief security officer, said North Koreans have used stolen or false identities to apply for remote IT roles, aiming to earn money and funnel wages back to fund the regime’s weapons programs. Schmidt noted that applications from North Koreans have surged nearly one-third in the past year and warned that similar activity is widespread across the IT sector.

Authorities have previously uncovered related schemes, including a laptop farm run by an Arizona woman. A laptop farm is a setup where multiple computers are used together for large-scale tasks and is sometimes used for illicit purposes. In this case, it allowed North Korean IT workers to secure jobs with more than 300 US companies, generating over $17 million for her and Pyongyang.

Seoul’s intelligence agency also reported that North Korean agents have contacted defence workers on LinkedIn to gain access to sensitive technology. The US Treasury added that cybercriminals linked to North Korea have stolen over $3 billion in the past three years, largely targeting cryptocurrencies.