US EditionAmazon Reportedly Has Blocked Over 1,800 North Korean Job Applicants Since April
Amazon's AI and manual checks blocked over 1,800 fake North Korean job applications since April 2024, with detections up 27% this year, to stop funding of illicit weapons programs.
- On December 23, 2025, Amazon reported blocking over 1,800 suspected North Korean applications, Stephen Schmidt disclosed in a LinkedIn post.
- According to Amazon's security chief, Stephen Schmidt said, `Their objective is typically straightforward: get hired, get paid, and funnel wages back to fund the regime's weapons programs,` as operatives use US 'laptop farms' to perform remote work for North Korea.
- Using AI and human checks, Amazon detects anomalies and geographic inconsistencies, while human verification teams spot mismatched education and international '+' phone formatting in applications.
- Federal prosecutors say the operation produced more than $17m in illicit gains, the US Department of Justice indicted US brokers, and an Arizona woman was sentenced to over eight years.
- Industry reports show the issue extends beyond Amazon, which saw a nearly one-third rise in North Korean job applications in the past year, while Microsoft reported more than 300 US companies unknowingly hired such workers.
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Amazon Blocks More Than 1,800 Phony Job Applications From North Korean Cyber Operatives
Amazon’s top security executive said that over the past 20 months, the company has blocked more than 1,800 North Korean nationals from obtaining remote internet technology jobs that would ultimately fund weapons programs in the country. Stephen Schmidt, senior vice president and chief security officer (CSO) at Amazon, said in a Dec. 19 LinkedIn post that North Korean operatives in increasing numbers are using artificial intelligence (AI) and man…
Amazon Blocks More Than 1,800 Phony Job Applications From North Korean Cyber Operatives - The Thinking Conservative News
Amazon blocked 1,800 North Korean nationals in 20 months from landing remote IT jobs used to funnel money into the regime’s weapons programs. The post Amazon Blocks More Than 1,800 Phony Job Applications From North Korean Cyber Operatives appeared first on The Thinking Conservative News.
Amazon Thwarts 18,00 Job Applications Tied To Suspected North Korea Agents
What if a simple remote job application wasn’t about a paycheck—but about funding weapons programs? That’s the unsettling reality a top Amazon executive says the tech world is now facing.Amazon has blocked more than 1,800 job applications. It believes were linked to North Korean operatives, according to the company’s chief security officer, Stephen Schmidt.In a LinkedIn post, he explained that the goal is blunt: “Get hired, get paid, and funnel …
Pyongyang is accused of circumventing UN sanctions by hiring remote employees from North Korean territory abroad.
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