North Korean animators may have helped create popular cartoons for Amazon Prime Video, Max and other streaming services. Researchers from Washington North Korea allegedly discovered a misconfigured cloud server with thousands of animation files at its IP address, . US sanctions prohibit commercial activity with North Korean entities due to human rights abuses and the development of a nuclear weapons program.
In addition to the requested changes to the server, animation cells, videos and notes discussing the work have been included. It looks like there are some pictures Invincible and others one he called Iyanu: The Prodigy. data partially analyzed by Google-owned security company MandiantHere’s a look at how North Korea will enforce sanctions.
The researchers were able to analyze incoming connections to the server and noted access from three Chinese cities, suggesting some kind of front company. “All three cities are known to have many North Korean-run businesses and are major hubs for North Korean IT workers living abroad.” shown in the report.
Michael Barnhart, who works at Mandiant, said there was nothing in the investigation to show that Max, Amazon or any of its subsidiaries knew that the work was run by North Korean animators. Most likely, it was a subcontractor without their knowledge. . Barnhart has a “high degree of confidence” that the contracts are with Chinese companies that outsource animators working on behalf of North Korea.
In 2022, the FBI and the US Treasury issued an advisory warning businesses about the risks of inadvertently hiring North Korean tech workers through such outsourcing. This was stated by the spokesperson of the US Ministry of Finance Reuters said it had no comment on that particular allegation, but noted that North Korea’s efforts to exploit its subcontracting system to generate revenue for its weapons programs is an ongoing concern.
To our fans: Skybound has been alerted to an unconfirmed report of a cloud storage server connected to a North Korean IP address. This server supposedly has an Invincible animation sketch. Our official statement is as follows.
We do not work with North Korea…
— Skybound Entertainment (@Skybound) April 21, 2024
Amazon directed inquiries to Skybound, the company behind it Invincible. He He said he was not aware of any North Korean entities working on animation projects, but that he had launched an internal investigation to verify and correct lingering problems. “We have also notified the appropriate authorities and are cooperating with all relevant authorities,” said Hannah Cosgrove, Skybound’s head of corporate communications. Max did not respond to requests for comment.
