Vietnam hack

Messages sent to email addresses used by the hackers went unanswered. Vietnam was quick to react to first reports of the new coronavirus, sealing off its border with neighbouring China and implementing an aggressive programme of contact tracing and quarantine measures that have kept cases of infection in the country below Adam Segal, a cybersecurity expert at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, said the hacking activity suggested Hanoi also took swift action in cyberspace.

The government wants to "control" criticism inside and outside the country, said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director with the New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch. The Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected hacking allegations last year when cybersecurity firm FireEye also identified a government connection to Ocean Lotus.

Amnesty International's Security Lab said in the February 24 statement it had found Ocean Lotus's influence in phishing emails sent to two Vietnamese "human rights" advocates.

One lives in Germany, the statement says, and the other was a Vietnamese nongovernmental organization in the Philippines. French journalism advocacy group Reporters Without Borders said in Vietnam had appointed 10, "cyber-troops" to fight online dissent. The journalism group called the deployment an "army of internet trolls" aimed at attacking independent media outlets. Authorities showed last year they can quickly shutter social media accounts registered in foreign countries.

After Vietnamese blogger Bui Thi Minh Hang livestreamed an interview with a woman whose 3-year-old child was exposed to tear gas, her posts quickly disappeared from Facebook and YouTube and she was arrested hours later. She lost access to her accounts. Jack Nguyen, a partner at the business advisory firm Mazars in Ho Chi Minh City, suggests that internet commentators stick to issues rather than targeting the state or the Communist Party.

Pollution and drought are acceptable topics, he said, and it's even OK to suggest policy changes. Search Search. Vietnam closed its borders to China and barred all flights from there on Feb. And as it was shutting itself off from its neighbor, hackers backed by the Vietnamese government were trying to hack into the heart of Chinese state organizations, according to research by US cybersecurity firm FireEye. APT32 is a cyber espionage group believed to have ties with the Hanoi government, and has carried out intrusions since at least , according to a report from FireEye.

Over the years, it has targeted foreign governments and corporations across multiple sectors, as well as journalists and activists. APT stands for advanced persistent threat, and such groups aim to pursue cyberattacks over the course of months or even years.

APT32 is just one such group among dozens from around the world linked to different countries. The first attack detected by FireEye took place on Jan. The spear-phishing messages contained code to inform the hackers if the email was opened. Malicious attachments and links containing a virus called Metaljack were then sent to the target, which gives the hackers access to the victim.