May 17, 2024 at 12:58PM
The U.S. Justice Department charged five individuals, including a U.S. Citizen woman and a Ukrainian man, for their involvement in North Korea’s cyber schemes to infiltrate U.S. job markets and generate revenue for the country’s nuclear weapons program. The State Department announced a reward of up to $5 million for information on Chapman’s co-conspirators and their manager.
The U.S. Justice Department has charged five individuals, including a U.S. citizen, a Ukrainian man, and three foreign nationals, for their involvement in cyber schemes that generated revenue for North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
Two of the individuals, Christina Marie Chapman and Oleksandr Didenko, have been arrested and face charges including conspiracy to defraud the United States, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to commit money laundering, wire fraud, identity fraud, and bank fraud. If convicted, Chapman faces a maximum of 97.5 years in prison, while Didenko’s maximum penalty can reach 67.5 years.
Chapman and her co-conspirators allegedly committed fraud and stole the identities of American citizens to enable individuals based overseas to pose as remote IT workers. The U.S. State Department has announced a reward for any information related to Chapman’s co-conspirators, the North Korean IT workers charged, and their manager, Zhonghua.
Chapman housed the North Korean IT workers’ computers in her home, creating a “laptop farm” to make it appear as though her co-conspirators’ devices were in the United States. Didenko also ran an online platform known as UpWorkSell, providing services to allow North Koreans to use false identities while hunting for remote IT work positions.
The scheme compromised over 60 U.S. identities and affected more than 300 U.S. companies, resulting in false tax liabilities for more than 35 U.S. citizens and generating at least $6.8 million in revenue for overseas IT workers.
The FBI issued an advisory with more information on how North Korea’s IT workers undermine the security of companies that hire them and guidance on how to spot North Korean IT worker schemes. The United States has previously published joint advisories with foreign partners warning of North Korean IT worker schemes and sanctioned multiple organizations involved in North Korea’s IT worker revenue generation schemes.