{"id":7052,"date":"2021-05-12T16:04:32","date_gmt":"2021-05-12T08:04:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesmartlocal.com\/vietnam\/?p=7052"},"modified":"2022-03-11T15:32:30","modified_gmt":"2022-03-11T07:32:30","slug":"hacker-hieu-pc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesmartlocal.com\/vietnam\/hacker-hieu-pc\/","title":{"rendered":"Hacker Who Was Jailed In US Now Works At Vietnam’s Cyber Security Centre"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hacker Hieu PC is now a cybersecurity specialist<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Those who break the law should be punished accordingly. Though seeing justice being served can be satisfying, it can be just as amazing to see a criminal redeeming himself. While most ex-prisoners take some time to reintegrate into society, some become role models because of how they’ve turned their lives around entirely.<\/span><\/p>\n

That’s the story of Ngo Minh Hieu<\/strong>, aka Hieu PC, a 32-year-old Vietnamese hacker<\/strong> imprisoned for years in the US. After his release last year, Hieu received the offer to work as a specialist at Vietnam’s National Cyber Security Centre.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here’s how he turned away from his criminal past into a leader on the forefront of Vietnam’s cybersecurity efforts.<\/p>\n

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He was a notorious hacker in his late teens<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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\"Hieu
\nImage adapted from: <\/span>Thanh Nien News<\/span><\/a>
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\nDuring his teenage years, Hieu had already mastered impressive IT skills through self-study while working as an administrator on several hacker forums.\u00a0<\/span>
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At 18, he was sent to New Zealand for advanced education. While studying, he discovered a loophole in the school\u2019s network system that made it vulnerable to payment data breaches. When he contacted the school management about it, they didn\u2019t take his words seriously.<\/span><\/p>\n

Angered by their response, Hieu responded by hacking the entire system.<\/span><\/p>\n

After realizing he could profit off his work, Hieu continued hacking other sites and stealing the personal information of credit card users. He then sold the info on TradeMe – an auction website.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, his less than legal activities soon caught the attention of Auckland police, and he was unable to attain a visa renewal after his first semester ended.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Caught the attention of authorities after making USD2,000,000<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Bitter about the visa process, Hieu bade farewell to his school by exploiting the system’s vulnerabilities, shutting down the school’s website for 2 days.<\/span><\/p>\n

After returning to Vietnam, Hieu attended Ho Chi Minh City University Of Science. As a force of habit, he continued hacking the school\u2019s system for exam questions to send to his classmates.<\/span><\/p>\n

From 2007 to 2013, Hieu made roughly USD2,000,0000 by stealing the personal info of millions of people and selling them to third parties.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At that age, Hieu probably didn\u2019t understand the gravity of his actions.<\/span><\/p>\n

The personal information he sold, including that from overseas websites, included:<\/span><\/p>\n