Analysis of DPRK IT Worker Logs
Contents
Analysis of DPRK IT Worker Logs
/ 15 min read
Background:
Since at least 2018, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) has tasked a large number of its citizens with illicitly acquiring high-paying jobs in the IT sector as a means of generating vast revenue streams for the regime and its nuclear weapons program. Referred to as IT Workers, they utilize fake and stolen identities, a myriad of illicit services, in-country facilitators, and front companies to acquire work and bypass heavy sanctions imposed on the country by the UN, US, and EU.
The scale of the IT Worker problem is so vast that in a recent UN Council of Experts report, a major freelance work platform stated that they suspect the majority of skilled freelance blockchain developers, and several newly created freelance job markets, are actually of DPRK origin. While the scale of the IT Workers is in itself an issue, 2024 has …
/ 15 min read
Background:
Since at least 2018, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) has tasked a large number of its citizens with illicitly acquiring high-paying jobs in the IT sector as a means of generating vast revenue streams for the regime and its nuclear weapons program. Referred to as IT Workers, they utilize fake and stolen identities, a myriad of illicit services, in-country facilitators, and front companies to acquire work and bypass heavy sanctions imposed on the country by the UN, US, and EU.
The scale of the IT Worker problem is so vast that in a recent UN Council of Experts report, a major freelance work platform stated that they suspect the majority of skilled freelance blockchain developers, and several newly created freelance job markets, are actually of DPRK origin. While the scale of the IT Workers is in itself an issue, 2024 has …