Justice Department Announces Actions to Combat North Korean Remote IT Workers
6 hours ago
- #Cybercrime
- #Sanctions Evasion
- #North Korea
- The Justice Department announced actions against North Korea's schemes to fund its regime through fraudulent remote IT work for U.S. companies.
- North Korean individuals used stolen and fake identities to obtain remote IT jobs with over 100 U.S. companies, assisted by facilitators in the U.S., China, UAE, and Taiwan.
- Schemes involved creating front companies, fraudulent websites, and laptop farms to enable remote access to U.S. company systems, leading to theft of sensitive data and virtual currency.
- One scheme involved stealing over $900,000 in virtual currency from a blockchain research company in Atlanta.
- U.S. national Zhenxing Wang and others were indicted for a multi-year fraud scheme generating over $5 million, with one co-conspirator pleading guilty.
- North Korean IT workers accessed sensitive data, including ITAR-controlled military technology, from U.S. companies.
- The FBI and partners seized 29 financial accounts, 21 fraudulent websites, and executed searches at 21 suspected laptop farms across 14 states.
- Four North Korean nationals were indicted in Georgia for wire fraud and money laundering involving stolen virtual currency worth over $900,000.
- The DPRK RevGen: Domestic Enabler Initiative targets North Korea's illicit revenue schemes and U.S.-based enablers.
- Public advisories highlight threats from North Korean IT workers, including identity theft, data exfiltration, and sanctions evasion.