US sanctions North Korean tech worker crew over crypto thefts

TRM Labs said North Korea is moving away from hacks to focus more on deception-based revenue generation, such as planting IT workers in US companies.

The US Treasury has sanctioned two people and four entities involved in what it says was a North Korea-run IT worker ring that would infiltrate crypto companies, aiming to exploit them.

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said on Tuesday that it sanctioned the North Korea-based Song Kum Hyok for allegedly stealing US citizens’ information to use as aliases and giving it to hired foreign IT workers who would seek employment at US companies.

OFAC also sanctioned the Russian national Gayk Asatryan for allegedly using his companies to employ dozens of North Korean IT workers under long-term agreements he signed with North Korean trading firms starting in 2024.

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