Three Americans have pleaded guilty to loaning out their identities to North Koreans seeking to secretly obtain work at US companies.
According to the Justice Department, 24-year-old Audricus Phagnasay, 30-year-old Jason Salazar, and 34-year-old Alexander Paul Travis were complicit in the scheme, which included helping the North Koreans remotely access corporate-issued laptops. “Travis and Salazar, in particular, appeared for drug testing on behalf of the overseas IT workers,” the agency says.
The charges are part of the DOJ’s ongoing effort to crack down on North Koreans securing remote IT jobs. Phagnasay, Salazar, and Travis participated in the scheme from September 2019 to November 2022, and knowingly provided their identities to IT workers based outside the US.
“The fraudulent scheme earned approximately $1.28 million in salary payments from the victim US companies, the vast majority of which were sent to the IT workers overseas,” the DOJ says.
Phagnasay only earned about $3,450, according to an official court document. Meanwhile, he helped the North Koreans land jobs from at least 10 US companies, which paid a combined total of over $680,000 in salary, the document adds.
Salazar received a payment around $4,500, while he helped the North Koreans obtain jobs at 14 US companies with a combined total of over $409,000 in salary.
Travis, who was an active-duty member of the US Army at the time, received at least $51,397
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The North Korean IT worker scheme generates illicit funds for the country’s government and weapons program, but also expose US companies to hacking since remote IT workers often have access to sensitive internal systems. The threat is pervasive, with signs that North Koreans have secured remote jobs from hundreds of companies.
To pull off the scheme, the North Koreans hire Americans to receive and activate company property, since they can’t have a US company ship a corporate laptop to Pyongyang. In other cases, the North Koreans have resorted to identity theft. On Friday, the DOJ also announced that a Ukrainian national named Oleksandr Didenko pleaded guilty to stealing US identities and selling the information to the North Koreans.
“These guilty pleas send a clear message: No matter who or where you are, if you support North Korea’s efforts to victimize US businesses and citizens, the FBI will find you and bring you to justice,” said FBI Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsk.
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Michael Kan
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I’ve been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I’m currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country’s technology sector.
Since 2020, I’ve covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I’ve combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink’s cellular service.
I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. Earlier this year, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.
I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I’m now following how President Trump’s tariffs will affect the industry. I’m always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.
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