Microsoft shuts down 3,000 email accounts created by North Korean IT workers

Microsoft said it suspended 3,000 Outlook and Hotmail email accounts it believed were created by North Korean IT workers as part of a larger effort to help companies address the costly scheme. 

The tech giant said it has spent years monitoring North Korea’s campaign to get its citizens hired in IT roles at U.S. companies and recently saw changes in how the campaign operates. North Korean IT workers now use artificial intelligence heavily to “replace images in stolen employment and identity documents and enhance North Korean IT worker photos to make them appear more professional.” 

“We’ve also observed that they’ve been utilizing voice-changing software,” Microsoft explained in a blog post that coincided with two Justice Department indictments charging several North Koreans and at least two U.S. citizens for their role in the IT worker campaign. 

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