Overview
- Applications linked to North Korea rose by nearly one-third over the past year, including a 27% quarter-over-quarter increase in 2025, Amazon CSO Stephen Schmidt said.
- Amazon says the attempts were intercepted early, preventing access to internal systems or sensitive data.
- U.S. authorities searched 29 suspected laptop farms in June, and in July an Arizona operator received more than eight years in prison with over $17 million tied to the fraud.
- Reported tactics include hijacked or purchased LinkedIn profiles, stolen identities, shifting education histories, and a focus on AI and machine-learning roles.
- Amazon warns the threat spans the tech sector and advises multi-stage identity verification plus monitoring for unusual remote access and unauthorized hardware.