Amazon says it has stopped more than 1,800 job applications from ‘suspected North Korean agents’ attempting to secure remote IT roles using stolen or fake identities, according to the company’s chief security officer.
The applicants are believed to be seeking employment to funnel wages back to fund Pyongyang’s weapons programmes, a tactic US and South Korean authorities warn is becoming widespread across the tech industry.
Amazon reported a sharp rise in such applications over the past year and said many operatives rely on so-called “laptop farms” based in the United States but controlled remotely from overseas.
The company uses a mix of artificial intelligence and human verification to detect fraudulent candidates, noting tactics have grown increasingly sophisticated. US authorities have already uncovered dozens of illegal laptop farms and prosecuted individuals who helped place North Korean workers into hundreds of American companies, generating millions of dollars in illicit income.
