The US Treasury has imposed sanctions on North Korean Song Kum Hyok for alleged cyber activities and leading an IT worker scam to collect revenue and data for Pyongyang.
Song Kum Hyok is associated with the Andariel cyber group, a North Korean military intelligence agency, involved in infecting US hospitals with ransomware and carrying out digital intrusions worldwide.
Song allegedly orchestrated a fake IT worker scheme, hiring foreign techies to work for US companies, using stolen identities to create aliases, and sending a share of the income back to North Korea for illicit activities.
The US Treasury also sanctioned a Russian national, Gayk Asatryan, for employing North Korean IT workers through Russia-based companies, as part of efforts to combat North Korean IT worker scams disrupting major companies.