Amazon Reportedly Has Blocked Over 1,800 North Korean Job Applicants Since April

Is North Korea's IT infiltration an Amazon-specific issue, or a massive industry-wide security crisis?

Published DEC 23 2025

Amazon Reportedly Has Blocked Over 1,800 North Korean Job Applicants Since April

Story

Above: Amazon logo displayed on a phone screen in an illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on Dec. 23, 2025. Image credit: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto/Getty Images

The Facts

Amazon reportedly blocked more than 1,800 suspected North Korean operatives from joining the company since April 2024, according to Chief Security Officer Stephen Schmidt. The company detected a 27% increase in North Korea-affiliated applications quarter over quarter this year.
NBC
Fox 28 Spokane
North Korean workers typically use laptop farms, which are computers physically located in the United States but operated remotely from outside the country. In July, an Arizona woman was sentenced to more than eight years in prison for running such a farm.
Taipei Times
Hindustan Times
The Arizona laptop farm scheme allegedly helped North Korean IT workers secure remote jobs at more than 300 U.S. companies and generated over $17 million in revenue for the woman and North Korea, according to officials.
Business Insider
Firstpost
Amazon uses a combination of AI-powered screening systems and human verification to detect fraudulent applications. Indicators reportedly include wrongly formatted phone numbers and inconsistent education histories.
BBC News
TechRadar
North Korea's cyber-warfare program dates back to at least the mid-1990s and has grown into a 6,000-strong cyber unit known as Bureau 121, which operates from several countries, according to a 2020 U.S. military report.
The Straits Times
The Hindu
The U.S. Department of the Treasury has accused North Korea-affiliated cybercriminals of stealing over $3 billion over the past three years, primarily in cryptocurrency, to fund the regime's nuclear weapons program.
TechInsights
Business Standard

Sources Split

LEFT

CENTER

RIGHT

ESTAB
CRIT

CENTER

PRO
ESTAB

The Spin

Narrative A

Amazon has taken bold and decisive actions against North Korean schemes to ultimately funnel wages to North Korean weapons programs. Amazon's formidable detection capabilities provide valuable lessons learned to other companies attempting to monitor these unwelcome job applicants.

Stephen Schmidt on LinkedIn

Narrative B

This issue extends far beyond Amazon; the threat posed by North Korean IT workers is a significant security crisis that requires urgent attention from the entire tech sector. Cybercriminals have stolen over $3 billion in just three years, infiltrating hundreds of Fortune 500 companies. This is a canary in the coal mine.