Hieu Minh Ngo

Ngo Minh Hieu 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,” Hieu recalled. “Then I used the same vulnerability to hack other websites. I was stealing lots of credit cards.” Hieu 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 Hieu’s role in it, and the Auckland police got involved.[1] Hieu’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] Hieu 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] Hieu 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]

Hieu 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 Hieu’s websites, have been victimized through the filing of $65 million in fraudulent individual income tax returns.[11]

In February 2013, Hieu entered the United States territory and was arrested[6] after U.S. Secret Service investigators lured Hieu 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. Hieu had been facing more than 42 years in federal prison,[12] 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.[13][14]

The Secret Service had difficulty pinning down the exact amount of financial damage inflicted by Hieu’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 Hieu’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.[15]

In July 2015, U.S. District Judge Paul Barbadoro sentenced Hieu, 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, Hieu 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, Hieu 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. Hieu was described by the US government as "one of the most notorious thieves ever pardoned in a federal prison".[16][17]

Three months after his return to Vietnam, Hieu posted a photo of his application for the National Cyber Security Monitoring Center (NCSC) on his personal Facebook page on December 3, 2020.[18] The next day, a representative of NCSC officially confirmed that Hieu would work for them as a technical expert.[19] Less than a month after officially starting work for NCSC, Hieu PC publicly demolished two bogus websites Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet Air designed to defraud passengers.[20][21] These two sizable fake websites, which have been around for a while, are regarded as sizable fake websites. Hieu PC's decision to publicly knock both down gained attention and received backing from online users.[22] Additionally, he removed profiles on social media that were created in his name with the intention of stealing consumers' confidence and making money.[23] In light of the numerous scams that have recently cropped up and are causing Vietnamese users a great deal of harm, including impersonation scams,[24][25] malwares disguising themselves as free applications,[26][27][28] illegal virtual currency trading,[29] etc. Hieu frequently makes appearances in campaigns against these scams, as well as providing users with advice and warnings.[30] These scams include targeted attacks on business systems,[31] and disinformation regarding information security understanding that creates public confusion.[32][33] Along with the moniker "former hacker",[34] Hieu is frequently referred to in Vietnamese media as a security engineer,[35][36] and cyber security specialist.[37]

From "black hat",[38] Ngo Minh Hieu turned "white hat" after returning to Vietnam.[39] He is continually awarded by several technological businesses as well as cellular service providers for his efforts in finding and correcting security issues. In May 2022, he was honored by Apple Inc. as one of the security specialists who contributed to this firm by identifying security weaknesses in Apple web servers.[40][41] This is the first time he has been awarded in the capacity of "white hat".[42] In February 2023, he was handed a certificate by the US carrier Verizon to congratulate him for uncovering two vulnerabilities that might damage data and two faults connected to the web management system of their network.[43][44] In a meeting with Lao Dong Newspaper, Ngo Minh Hieu remarked that there are often a lot of financial companies and banks that request him to cooperate to figure out the system's security weaknesses. He undertakes these works by contract, but 60% of his time is generally devoted to social projects.[43] In March 2023, he was invited to Dubai to attend and give a lecture on cybersecurity at the Gulf Information Security Expo & Conference (GISEC).[45][46] This is the first time he has gone overseas since returning to Vietnam at the end of 2020.[47]

Besides humanitarian projects, Ngo Minh Hieu regularly appears in sharing sessions, discussion shows, seminars or conferences on information security at home and abroad.

Events
Times	Event	Organization	Nation	Ref
September 2021	TEDxRMIT 2021: The One Lagacy	TED, RMIT	Online	[48][49]
November 2021	Global Online Scam Summit	ScamAdviser		[50]
	CISO Online ASEAN	Corinium Global Intelligence		[51]
December 2021	GDG DevFest HCMC	Google Developer Groups		[52]
March 2022	CISO Sydney	Corinium Global Intelligence	Australia	[53]
December 2022	Microsoft Technology Summit	Microsoft	Vietnam	[54][55]
March 2023	GISEC	Cyber Security Council	United Arab Emirates	[45][46]
	CyberSecurity Awareness Events	CloudDefense	Online	[56]
	Raising Cyber Security Awareness	TED, Đakao	Vietnam	[57][58]
April 2023	Smarter Faster Payments	NACHA	United States	[59]
June 2023	Scam Investigators Meet-up	GASA	Online	[60]
July 2023	Google I/O Extended MienTrung	Google Developer Groups	Vietnam	[61]
August 2023	FIDO APAC Summit 2023	FIDO Alliance, VinCSS		[62]
Seminar
Times	Seminar topic	Organization	Nation	Ref
May 2021	Safety in the digital environment	VANJ	Online	[63]
February 2022	Security Perspective during Product Development	Gambaru		[64]
November 2022	Information technology orientation	HUFLIT	Vietnam	[65]
March 2023	Cybersecurity in digital space – Trends and opportunities	PTIT, Naver		[66]
May 2023	Risk warning and cyber fraud prevention	Southern VNISA		[67][68]

In February 2021, he established the non-profit initiative "ChongLuaDao" (English: Scam Fighters, Vietnamese: Chống Lừa Đảo) together with the related website and add-on extension.[69][70] This is a project to alert clients about websites with undesirable material, false content, phishing, scam or harboring malware.[71] After just one day of availability, the ChongLuaDao extension has received more than 3,500 downloads, more than 70 thousand views, and banned more than 1000 phishing websites from more than 1400 reports from users.[72] Since returning to Vietnam, he has regularly participated in providing knowledge about information security in cyberspace, helping users avoid harmful websites.[73][74] In addition, he has put up a blog called 7onez to help many individuals and companies enhance their knowledge of attacks from hackers.[75] Some comments argue that these are all activities that this hacker does to atone for society.[76]

In May 2021, Ngo Minh Hieu and Coc Coc established the "Green Shield Campaign" with the purpose of providing a secure online environment for Vietnamese people.[77][78] This is quite a campaign that attracted the attention of the media and Vietnamese people during its start.[79][80][81] In less than 4 weeks, more than 24,000 hazardous websites have been reported by users, and more than 12,000 websites with harmful and phishing features have been warned.[82] This makes Hieu PC's cyber security projects efforts attract greater attention.[83] Also during this time, he took on the role of professional consultant for CyberKid Vietnam – a non-profit organization that supports children in cyberspace.[84][85] This is also a particular project that focuses on the protection of children, one of the most susceptible victims of cyberattacks.[86][87]

In the context of the breakout of the COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam, the issue of stealing personal information and scamming users is taking place more and more severely.[88][89] Hieu PC and his fanpage on the social network Facebook are presently one of the most noted information security channels when continuously updating preventative measures and associated warnings.[90][91] The members of the ChongLuaDao initiative not only periodically issue warnings about the status and scams that are happening often,[92][93] but also offer remedies and help for victims of scammers.[94][95] On November 24, 2021, Ngo Minh Hieu announced the foundation of ChongLuaDao Company, a social enterprise private limited company. This non-profit company is the next evolution of the non-profit project of the same name that launched in late 2020.[96]