Hacker Abroad: Vietnam’s Hardware Hackers

One of the unfortunate things about Hackaday’s globe-spanning empire is that you often don’t get to meet the people you work with in person. Since I was in China and it’s right next door, I really wanted to pop over to Vietnam and meet Sean Boyce, who has been writing …read more

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Vietnam’s premier hacking group ramps up targeting of global car companies

A Vietnamese hacking group has been aggressively targeting multinational automotive companies in an apparent bid to support the country’s domestic auto industry, researchers who closely track the group told CyberScoop. Since February, the group known as APT32 sent malicious lures to between five and 10 organizations in the automotive sector, according to Nick Carr, senior manager at cybersecurity company FireEye. FireEye “assesses with moderate confidence” that APT32’s latest activity is in support of “the Vietnamese government’s stated domestic vehicle and auto part manufacturing goals,” Carr said. It is unclear how successful the operation has been. Carr declined to say whether the lures led to compromises of the automotive organizations’ networks. What is clear is that FireEye mobilized resources in response to the threat. “This is a little bit uncommon for [APT32] to do the industry-wide targeting,” he told CyberScoop. “And so, as a company we’ve been putting out more intelligence on our […]

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Facebook Accused of Violating Vietnam’s Cyber Law

Vietnam’s controversial cybersecurity law that tightens government control of the online environment just came into effect on Jan. 1 and it’s already claiming its first victim, writes the Financial Times. On Tuesday, the communist country a… Continue reading Facebook Accused of Violating Vietnam’s Cyber Law

ESET: Vietnamese hacking group hijacks Southeast Asian sites in watering hole campaign

A prominent Vietnam-linked hacking group is exploiting a number of Southeast Asian organizations’ websites to deliver malware that extracts detailed information about victims’ systems, researchers say. According to a report released Tuesday by Slovakian cybersecurity company ESET, the threat group APT32, also known as OceanLotus Group, has been conducting watering hole attacks using at least 21 vulnerable websites belonging to government, media and other organizations as far back as September. APT32 is believed to be based in Vietnam and possibly linked to its government. Past research has shown APT32 to be a highly capable threat group that targets a wide variety of public and private organizations with customized tools for each target. Similarly, this campaign shows APT32 using a unique domain and server for each website it’s using as a watering hole, and the group only sends additional payloads to specific victims, according to ESET. ESET said it notified 21 website […]

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A Giant Sun Storm During the Vietnam War Likely Exploded Dozens of Mines

“The extreme space weather events of early August 1972 had significant impact on the US Navy, which have not been widely reported.” Continue reading A Giant Sun Storm During the Vietnam War Likely Exploded Dozens of Mines

New research highlights Vietnamese group’s custom hacking tools

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered remote access tools, or backdoors, linked to an infamous Vietnamese hacking group with a history of targeting government organizations and intellectual-property-rich companies. Analysts with cybersecurity company Cylance say that while investigating a security incident last year, they found multiple custom backdoors used by the cyber-espionage outfit known as APT32 or OceanLotus Group. The hackers used command and control protocols that were tailored to their targets and that supported multiple network communication methods. “The overall design and development of these threats indicate they come from a well-funded development team,” research from Cylance published Wednesday states. “The OceanLotus Group uses an expansive amount of custom library code that can easily be repurposed for maximum effectiveness against their next target.” Tom Bonner, Cylance’s director of threat research, told CyberScoop that the “underlying code for the APT32 backdoors is highly modular,” meaning it can be repurposed by tweaking command and control protocols. APT32, […]

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German Counterintelligence: There are Spies Active in Germany

German counterintelligence officials highlight the activities of Russia, China and Iran in the annual report prepared by the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV), the domestic intelligence service of the Federal Republic of Germany. The report highli… Continue reading German Counterintelligence: There are Spies Active in Germany

Lawmakers ask Google, Facebook not to work with Vietnamese government on new data laws

A bipartisan and bicameral group of lawmakers has asked Google and Facebook not to share sensitive user data with the Vietnamese government that could enable surveillance and censorship of the country’s citizens. The lawmakers object to a heavy-handed Vietnamese law that requires tech companies to remove content within 24 hours of getting a request from Vietnamese authorities. Three senators and 17 members of the House of Representatives wrote to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai asking the companies not to store data in Vietnam if it means it can be seized by authorities. The Southeast Asian country has a stifling climate for online expression, and the new law, which will take effect in January after its approval by legislators last month, will further tighten the screws. The human rights advocacy group Amnesty International urged tech companies to resist the measure, saying “this law can only work if tech […]

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