DOJ indicts five in North Korean fake IT worker scheme
The U.S. government delivered another blow to North Korea’s fake IT worker scheme Thursday, with the Department of Justice announcing indictments against five men for fraudulently obtaining remote credentials to work with American companies and generate revenue for Pyongyang.
The indictments of North Korean nationals Jin Sung-Il and Pak Jin-Song, Mexican national Pedro Ernesto Alonso De Los Reyes, and U.S. nationals Erick Ntekereze Prince and Emanuel Ashtor follow previous DOJ actions targeting related schemes, and come a week after the Treasury Department sanctioned two individuals and four entities for allegedly engaging in similar behavior.
“The Department of Justice remains committed to disrupting North Korea’s cyber-enabled sanctions-evading schemes, which seek to trick U.S. companies into funding the North Korean regime’s priorities, including its weapons programs,” Devin DeBacker, supervisory official with the Justice Department’s National Security Division, said in a statement.
“Our commitment includes the vigorous pursuit of both the North Korean actors and those providing them with material support,” he continued. “It also includes standing side-by-side with U.S. companies to not only disrupt ongoing victimization, but also to help them independently detect and prevent such schemes in the future.”
