A Tennessee man was detained by American law enforcement on suspicion of operating a “laptop farm” that assisted North Korean IT workers in obtaining remote positions at American businesses.
A Tennessee man was detained by American law enforcement on suspicion of operating a “laptop farm” that assisted North Korean IT workers in obtaining remote positions at American businesses.
Using the stolen identity of an American citizen, 38-year-old Matthew Isaac Knoot ran a scam that involved North Koreans posing as IT specialists in the United States.
According to the Justice Department, the businesses supplied laptops to Knoot’s Nashville residence because they thought they were employing real American citizens. According to the CIA, Knoot put malware on the laptops without authorization, which let the North Koreans log in remotely from China.
This is the second significant arrest related to North Koreans working remotely as IT employees for American companies. Christina Marie Chapman, an Arizona resident, was accused earlier this year by the Justice Department of allegedly assisting North Korean IT professionals in obtaining employment in the US between October 2020 and October 2023.
According to reports, Chapman assisted them in pretending to be Americans and operated a laptop farm at her house to give the impression that the North Korean computers were connecting from the US. Chapman is also charged with assisting in the money transfers from the scam outside of the United States.
Authorities claim that the ongoing programs assisted North Korean IT professionals in landing positions at Fortune 500 organizations, which included a luxury retail outlet, a major TV network, an automotive factory, a Silicon Valley tech company, an aerospace manufacturer, and a media and entertainment corporation. At least $6.8 million was made by the IT personnel, some of whom even tried to apply for positions at two US federal organizations.
In order to deceive unsuspecting companies and avoid international sanctions, the U.S. administration believes that North Korea has sent thousands of highly skilled individuals throughout the globe to support its weapons development.
“Our office’s commitment to protecting the national security interests of the United States is demonstrated by today’s indictment, which charges the defendant with facilitating a complex, multi-year scheme that funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to foreign actors,” stated U.S. Attorney Henry C. Leventis.
If found guilty, Knoot may receive a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, with a statutory minimum of two years for the aggravated identity theft charge.
The most recent arrest comes after Florida-based KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training admitted that it was duped into hiring a North Korean as a principal laptop software engineer and barely escaped a significant security breach.
According to KnowBe4, the North Korean agent tried to install malware on a business workstation for the first twenty-five minutes of his employment.
The newly hired principal software engineer’s workstation was the source of strange activity that KnowBe4’s security team noticed. They immediately established that the hostile insider was using a Raspberry Pi to download malware, alter session history files, and run unauthorized software.
KnowBe4 CEO Stu Sjouwerman stated, “We sent them their Mac workstation, and the moment it was received, it started to load malware.”
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