The Department of Justice and FBI unveiled two indictments and multiple seizures Monday after uncovering a sophisticated North Korea hacking scheme. Remote IT workers in North Korea posed as U.S. employees to defraud American firms. They set up “laptop farms” and front companies—earning over $5 million, with $900,000 stolen in virtual currency alone.
Assistant Attorney General John Eisenberg warned that the plot targeted U.S. companies “to defraud U.S. companies and exploit American victims of identity theft,” while FBI Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky confirmed, “North Korean IT workers posing as U.S. citizens fraudulently obtained employment… so they could funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to North Korea’s authoritarian regime.”
A U.S. national in New Jersey, Zhenxing Wang, now faces a five‑count indictment for orchestrating remote IT work in collaboration with DPRK actors. U.S. Attorney Leah Foley added, “The threat posed by DPRK operatives is both real and immediate.”
As Rozhavsky warned, these North Korea hacking schemes don’t just steal data—they fund dictatorships, making clear that cyber vigilance remains crucial to protect America.
