Lin Mun Poo owns up to hacking of Federal Reserve computers

Do you think hacking financial institutions and selling stolen information onto others is a viable career? You could be flushing your life down the toilet…

A Malaysian man who was arrested last year by an undercover Secret Service agent, has admitted hacking into a series of financial institutions, and pleaded guilty to possessing stolen credit and debit card numbers with the intention to defraud.

Officers arrested 32-year-old Lin Mun Poo in a diner, shortly after he flew into New York from Malaysia, and claimed to recover over 400,000 credit card numbers and bank account details from his “heavily encrypted laptop computer”.

Lin Mun Poo found a security vulnerability on Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland’s network in June 2010, and claims to have added malicious code to a Federal Reserve computer. However, it is believed that he stole the treasure trove of credit card numbers…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the cybersecurity industry, having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Bluesky, or drop him an email.