A Maryland man was sentenced to 15 months in prison for assisting North Korea in infiltrating U.S. tech companies

According to Decrypt, 40-year-old Minh Phuong Ngoc Vong from Maryland was sentenced to 15 months in prison and three years of supervised release for helping North Korean agents secretly infiltrate U.S. tech companies. Between 2021 and 2024, Vong used false credentials to obtain software development positions at least 13 U.S. companies, which paid him over $970,000 in salary, while the actual work was done remotely by North Korean agents located in China.

Some companies also outsourced Vong's services to U.S. government agencies, including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), resulting in these agents gaining unauthorized access to sensitive government systems.