By Song Sang-ho

WASHINGTON, Aug. 11 (Yonhap) -- The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating how a North Korean remote information technology (IT) worker got a job at a U.S. federal agency, a report said Tuesday, underscoring the growing risks posed by Pyongyang's IT worker scheme to the U.S. government sector.

According to Federal News Network, a U.S. media outlet, Todd Hemmen, deputy assistant director of the FBI's Cyber Capabilities Branch, told a forum last month that the FBI recently identified a North Korean remote IT staffer working for the U.S. federal government.

He made the remarks in response to a question about whether the North's IT worker scheme has affected the U.S. government.

"Still kind of unpacking that recent case. It's actually a little bit baffling to me, not understanding this particular agency's process," he said during the July 28 forum hosted by the Digital Government Institute in Washington.

"But the short answer is yes, we are seeing remote IT workers not just in the private sector -- although a vastly higher proportion (are) in the private sector -- but we're also seeing this impact the government to a degree," he added.

The FBI official did not elaborate, leaving it uncertain which U.S. government agency was affected and whether any sensitive information was stolen, the report said.

The revelation came as Washington, Seoul, Tokyo and other countries are stepping up efforts to block North Korea's IT worker schemes that they believe are used to generate hard currency to help fund the reclusive regime's nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction programs.

North Korean IT workers are known to be deployed within and outside of North Korea, obtain jobs through false identities and other fraudulent methods, and remotely earn income to bankroll Pyongyang's weapons programs.

Tuesday's report pointed out that the latest IT worker case was not unprecedented.

Last year, a man from Maryland was sentenced to 15 months in prison for allowing a North Korean national in China to work on software development contracts for the Federal Aviation Administration, it said.

Late last month, South Korea, the U.S., Japan and eight other countries issued a joint alert about North Korean IT workers, saying that they pose an insider threat to companies and are involved in data exfiltration, cryptocurrency theft, and theft of sensitive information.

sshluck@yna.co.kr

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