Hieu Minh Ngo

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In this Vietnamese name, the surname is Ngô. In accordance with Vietnamese custom, this person should be referred to by the given name, Hiếu.
Hieu Minh Ngo
Born (1989-10-08) October 8, 1989 (age 32)
Gia Lai, Vietnam
NationalityVietnamese
Other namesHieuPC/Hiếu PC [1]
OccupationCyber Security Specialist
Known forSentenced to 13 years in U.S. federal prison for stealing user information[2]

Ngô Minh Hiếu (born 8 October 1989) is a Vietnamese hacker and identity thief. He was convicted in the United States of stealing hundreds of thousands of persons' personally identifiable information and in 2015 was sentenced to 13 years in U.S. federal prison.[2] He has recently been recruited by Vietnam’s National Cybersecurity Center (NCSC) as a technical expert.[3][4]

Computer crimes[]

Ngô Minh Hiếu is a Vietnamese national.[5] He was born in Gia Lai, Vietnam, on October 8, 1989.

In his late teens, he traveled to New Zealand to study English at a university there. By that time, he was already an administrator of several dark web hacker forums, and between his studies he discovered a vulnerability in the school’s network that exposed payment card data. “I did contact the IT technician there to fix it, but nobody cared so I hacked the whole system,” Hiếu recalled. “Then I used the same vulnerability to hack other websites. I was stealing lots of credit cards.” Hiếu said he decided to use the card data to buy concert and event tickets from Ticketmaster, and then sell the tickets at a New Zealand auction site called TradeMe. The university later learned of the intrusion and Hiếu’s role in it, and the Auckland police got involved.[1] Hiếu’s travel visa was not renewed after his first semester ended, and in retribution he attacked the university’s site, shutting it down for at least two days.[1]

From 2007 to 2013, he operated a "massive international hacking and identity theft scheme from his home in Vietnam" in which he stole personally identifiable information (such as names, Social Security numbers, and bank account data) of 200 million U.S. citizens.[6] Hiếu obtained this data by hacking companies' databases, then advertised and offered (on two websites he operated, which were later shuttered) the stolen information for purchase by other cybercriminals.[7] Hiếu was also able to obtain data from Court Ventures, an Experian subsidiary,[8][9] by "posing as a private investigator operating out of Singapore."[10]

Hiếu made nearly $2 million from his scheme.[5][6][2] The Internal Revenue Service has confirmed that 13,673 U.S. citizens, whose stolen PII was sold on Hiếu’s websites, have been victimized through the filing of $65 million in fraudulent individual income tax returns.[11]

Prosecution, sentence, and release[]

In February 2013, Hiếu entered the United States territory and was arrested[6] after U.S. Secret Service investigators lured Hiếu to Guam "to consummate a business deal with a man he believed could deliver huge volumes of consumers' personal and financial data for resale."[10] He subsequently pleaded guilty to federal crimes: (1) wire fraud, (2) identity fraud, (3) access device fraud, and (4) four counts of computer fraud and abuse. Hiếu had been facing more than 24 years in federal prison, but his sentence was lightened because he cooperated with investigators to secure the arrest of at least a dozen of his U.S.-based customers.[12][13]

The Secret Service had difficulty pinning down the exact amount of financial damage inflicted by Hiếu’s various ID theft services over the years, primarily because those services only kept records of what customers searched for — not which records they purchased. But based on the records they did have, the government estimated that Hiếu’s service enabled approximately $1.1 billion in new account fraud at banks and retailers throughout the United States, and roughly $65 million in tax refund fraud with the states and the IRS.[14]

In July 2015, U.S. District Judge Paul Barbadoro sentenced Hiếu, then age 25, to 13 years in prison.[5][6] The Bureau of Prisons lists his register number as 03664-093 and his release date was 11/20/2019. In the final months of his detention, Hiếu started reading everything he could get his hands on about computer and Internet security, and even authored a lengthy guide written for the average Internet user with advice about how to avoid getting hacked or becoming the victim of identity theft.

In the longer term, Hiếu says, he wants to mentor young people and help guide them on the right path, and away from cybercrime. He’s been brutally honest about his crimes and the destruction he’s caused. His LinkedIn profile states up front that he’s a convicted cybercriminal.

Hiếu was described by the US government as "one of the most notorious thieves ever pardoned in a federal prison".[15][16]

Work as a Cybersecurity expert[]

3 months after his return to Vietnam, Hiếu posted a photo of his application for the National Cyber Security Monitoring Center (NCSC) on his personal Facebook page on December 3, 2020.[17] The next day, a representative of NCSC officially confirmed that Hiếu would work for them as a Technical expert.[18]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c "Confessions of an ID Theft Kingpin, Part I". Krebs on Security. August 26, 2020. Archived from the original on January 25, 2021. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
  2. ^ a b c "Hacker Việt trộm dữ liệu của 200 triệu người Mỹ lĩnh 13 năm tù". VnExpress. July 15, 2015. Archived from the original on February 11, 2021. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
  3. ^ "Vietnam's National Cybersecurity Center hires former cybercriminal". VnExpress. December 5, 2020. Archived from the original on January 25, 2021. Retrieved December 5, 2020.
  4. ^ "Hacker Hieupc đầu quân cho Trung tâm Giám sát an toàn không gian mạng quốc gia". Tuổi Trẻ. December 4, 2020. Archived from the original on December 6, 2020. Retrieved December 5, 2020.
  5. ^ a b c Vietnamese National Sentenced to 13 Years in Prison for Operating a Massive International Hacking and Identity Theft Scheme Archived 2021-03-25 at the Wayback Machine (press release), U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs (July 14, 2015).
  6. ^ a b c d James Eng, Hacker Gets 13 Years in Prison for Massive International ID Theft Archived 2018-03-23 at the Wayback Machine, NBC News (July 14, 2015).
  7. ^ Alyssa Bereznak (July 14, 2015). "This 25-Year-Old Vietnamese Man Stole the Identities of Nearly 200 Million Americans". Yahoo.com. Archived from the original on October 30, 2016. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
  8. ^ Poeter, Damon (2013-10-22). "Experian Confirms Subsidiary's Data Sold to ID Theft Operation". PCMag.com. Archived from the original on 2015-07-15. Retrieved 2015-07-15.
  9. ^ Osborne, Charlie (2014-04-14). "200M consumer records exposed in Experian security lapse". CNET. Archived from the original on 2015-07-15. Retrieved 2015-07-15.
  10. ^ a b "Experian Lapse Allowed ID Theft Service Access to 200 Million Consumer Records". Krebs on Security. March 10, 2014. Archived from the original on July 15, 2015. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
  11. ^ "Vietnamese National Sentenced to 13 Years in Prison for Operating a Massive International Hacking and Identity Theft Scheme". FBI. July 14, 2015. Archived from the original on August 13, 2020. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
  12. ^ "ID Theft Service Proprietor Gets 13 Years". July 15, 2015. Archived from the original on April 16, 2021. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
  13. ^ "Convicted Tax Fraudster & Fugitive Caught". March 19, 2015. Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
  14. ^ "Confessions of an ID Theft Kingpin, Part II". Krebs on Security. August 27, 2020. Archived from the original on March 31, 2021. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
  15. ^ Bảo Lâm (2021-05-22). "Ngô Minh Hiếu - từ 'hacker mũ đen' thành chuyên gia an ninh mạng". VnExpress (in Vietnamese). Archived from the original on 2021-06-01. Retrieved 2021-08-19.
  16. ^ Lien Hoang (2021-05-18). "One of the world's most prolific hackers wants to say sorry". Nikkei Asia. Archived from the original on 2021-08-16. Retrieved 2021-08-19.
  17. ^ Lưu Quý (2020-12-04). "Hacker nổi tiếng thế giới làm chuyên gia bảo mật tại Việt Nam". VnExpress (in Vietnamese). Archived from the original on 2020-12-20. Retrieved 2021-08-19.
  18. ^ Viết Thịnh (2020-12-05). "Hacker Việt từng ngồi tù ở Mỹ được tuyển dụng vào NCSC". . Archived from the original on 2021-08-19. Retrieved 2021-08-19.


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