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Small Countries’ New Weapon Against Goliaths: Hacking


Le Thi Thu Hang, a spokeswoman for the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry, this month. Vietnam “does not allow cyberattacks on organizations or individuals,” she said.

  • LUONG THAI LINH / EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY
    By MIKE IVES and PAUL MOZUR
    MAY 14, 2017

HONG KONG — Hackers in Vietnam have been attacking foreign companies and other targets for years, seeking information and using tactics that suggest links to the Vietnamese government, a cybersecurity company said Monday.

The findings, laid out in a report released by the company, FireEye, come as companies and experts look beyond traditional sources of attacks like China and Russia to deal with new or rising threats. Smaller countries are now trying their hand at hacking, experts say, as they seek to follow dissidents, undermine enemies or comb corporate files for trade secrets.

FireEye, a company based in California that deals with large network breaches, said it had watched a Vietnamese group known as OceanLotus target foreign companies in the manufacturing, hospitality and consumer products sectors since at least 2014. While identifying hackers or the governments that might back them can be difficult, FireEye said OceanLotus had used tactics similar to those in attacks previously identified by experts as having targeted Vietnamese dissidents, journalists and governments at odds with the country.

The OceanLotus group “accessed personnel details and other data from multiple victim organizations that would be of very little use to any party other than the Vietnamese government,” said Nick Carr, a security expert at FireEye and the primary author of the report.

Le Thi Thu Hang, a spokeswoman for the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry, called the findings of the report “groundless” and said the country looked forward to working internationally to fight digital breaches. Vietnam “does not allow cyberattacks on organizations or individuals,” she said in an emailed statement. “All cyberattacks or threats to cybersecurity must be condemned and severely punished in accordance with regulations and law.”

FireEye experts said OceanLotus was the first of 32 state-linked hacking groups it had identified worldwide that was neither Russian nor Chinese.

State-sponsored hacking is “the new way to do espionage in the 21st century because it’s much easier to resource compared to a human operation,” said Tim Wellsmore, FireEye’s Asia director of threat intelligence. “This is a low-cost, high-return model.”

Plainclothes security forces in Vietnam, a one-party authoritarian state, regularly spy on journalists, activists and political dissidents, sometimes in almost comically obvious ways — tailing them by motorbike, for example, or eavesdropping in a cafe. Activists in the Vietnamese diaspora have also reported being targeted by what they say is state-sponsored hacking.



FireEye, a company that deals with large network breaches, said it had watched a Vietnamese group known as OceanLotus target foreign companies since at least 2014.
BECK DIEFENBACH / REUTERS


In a 2014 blog post, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy group in California, documented what it said appeared to be a state-affiliated Vietnamese hacking operation that had targeted a range of people critical of the government, including an Associated Press reporter in Vietnam and a pro-democracy blogger in California. FireEye said OceanLotus employed a similar type of email phishing, using messages to bait victims into downloading malicious software or turning over their user names and passwords.

The report also documented the group’s hacking of companies from Vietnam, China, Germany, the Philippines, Britain and the United States. It did not analyze specific breaches in detail, but it said one European manufacturing company had been compromised in 2014 before building a factory in Vietnam. It also said that OceanLotus malware had been detected last year on the network of a global hospitality developer that was planning to expand into the country.

Ben Wootliff, who oversees digital security at the business consultancy Control Risks, said online crime was a risk for local and international companies in Vietnam for a number of reasons, including a rapid pace of digitalization and an improvisational business environment. “There is a lack of desire, awareness and capability to implement decent cyberhygiene,” he said.

The European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam and the American Chamber of Commerce in Hanoi said hacking was a growing problem for businesses in the country.

“More and more companies have to hire experts and train the staff to understand the security risks that are part of their everyday working routine,” said Amanuel Flobbe, the chairman of the Information and Communications Technology Sector Committee at the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam.

Digital security experts say private-sector cybercriminals or activists are responsible for much of the hacking in Southeast Asia. But FireEye said OceanLotus was notable because it appeared to be state-sponsored and used some unique malware that was not commercially available.

By nature asymmetrical, hacking is a natural outlet for smaller countries to confront larger rivals. OceanLotus, for example, has attacked corporate and government entities in China that were focused mostly on oceanic development and fishing, according to a report by the Chinese internet security company Qihoo 360. That may indicate that Vietnam was seeking to learn more about Chinese plans in the South China Sea, where the two countries have disputes over islands and reefs.

The proliferation of government- and military-run hacking in developing countries also raises a broader prospect of what rules should apply to cyberconflicts. This year, the president of Microsoft, Brad Smith, called for a digital Geneva Convention to push back against a raft of political hackings that have targeted elections in the United States and Europe. Reports on other hacking efforts, like United States officials’ targeting of North Korea’s nuclear program and North Korean hackers’ attacks on Sony Pictures, have also heightened concerns.

Mr. Wellsmore said state-sponsored hacking groups in Asia were increasingly using multimillion-dollar tools to achieve their goals.

“That sort of level of sophistication is generally nation-state-sponsored,” he said, “because they’re the ones that have that strategic interest and are willing to invest that sort of money.”

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/05/...companies.html?referer=https://www.google.de/
 
US fast transport vessel Fall River at the Đà Nẵng seaport

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Vietnam, US want to further defense partnership

VNA WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 2017


At the meeting (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh, Deputy Minister of National Defence, hosted a reception for Senior Vice President of the US-ASEAN Business Council Michael Michalak in Hanoi on May 17.

The two sides spoke highly of the comprehensive partnership between Vietnam and the US, including the effective defense cooperation.

They expressed their hope to push ahead with efforts to implement the Memorandum of Understanding on the bilateral defense cooperation, which was signed in 2011, and jointly address post-war consequences in Vietnam.

Both nations also agreed to build on the outcomes of the negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement to step up the bilateral trade in the coming time.-VNA
 
Image with symbolism. I am usually sceptical but admit some agreements signed during Vietnam president high level visit to China look promising.

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VPA’s Chief of General Staff attends ACDFIM-14

PANO – A high-ranking delegation of the Vietnam People’s Army (VPA), led by Lieutenant General Phan Van Giang, Chief of the General Staff and Deputy Minister of National Defense, attended the 14th ASEAN Chiefs of Defense Forces Informal Meeting (ACDFIM-14) from May 17 to 19 in Manila, the Philippines, at the invitation of General Eduardo M Año, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

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Lieutenant General Phan Van Giang, Chief of the General Staff and Deputy Minister of National Defense. Photo: VNA
The Vietnamese defense delegation availed itself of this opportunity to heighten the country’s role and position in the region and the world via active activities at multilateral military-defense forums, contributing to asserting the external policy of multilateralization and diversification as well as the proactive policy of active international integration of the Party and State of Vietnam. Thus, the country will promote joint efforts to maintain peace, stability and development in the region, to realize goals of the ASEAN Political-Security Community, and to support the host country in its role of ASEAN’s rotating presidency.


Under the theme “ASEAN Chiefs of Defense Forces: All partners for changes and cooperation commitment,” the participants will listen to speeches by participating defense delegations and sharing views on maritime security and counter-terrorism.

In addition, the 14th ASEAN Military Operations Informal Meeting (AMOIM-14), the 14th ASEAN Military Intelligence Informal Meeting (AMIIM-14) also took place at the same time within the framework of ACDFIM-14.
http://en.qdnd.vn/military/defence-...ief-of-general-staff-attends-acdfim-14-480987
 
Vietnam, US want to further defense partnership

VNA WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 2017


At the meeting (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh, Deputy Minister of National Defence, hosted a reception for Senior Vice President of the US-ASEAN Business Council Michael Michalak in Hanoi on May 17.

The two sides spoke highly of the comprehensive partnership between Vietnam and the US, including the effective defense cooperation.

They expressed their hope to push ahead with efforts to implement the Memorandum of Understanding on the bilateral defense cooperation, which was signed in 2011, and jointly address post-war consequences in Vietnam.

Both nations also agreed to build on the outcomes of the negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement to step up the bilateral trade in the coming time.-VNA

I saw them standing right next to each other (US and Vietnam) because of alphabetical order, at the RSN naval anniversary meet. It was good to see....former adversaries now becoming close friends.
 
Interesting: the obor event in China offers Vietnam delegation more meetings with foreign leaders than ever possible in the homeland. Conclusion: we should always go to China whenever there is any major international event, regardless of any fruitful outcome with the Chinese or not. The man of the day that probably now holds the fate of Donald Trump: comrade Vladimir Putin. He knows where all dead bodies were buried. Ha ha. Also no surprise the more tensions between Vietnam and China the more the smart Russians profit from the disaster. From oil/gas exploration in the SC sea and Russian waters to weapon purchases to nuclear cooperations.

The way to go :-)

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Political high explosive theme Tpp or no Tpp (or else) is expected, when US and Canada trade ministers Robert Lighthizer and Philippe Champagne are coming to Vietnam. I think we will seek a bilateral deal with America, while negotiate with Canada on terms and conditions for a Japan led Tpp-11 pact.

The next logical step would be if Vietnam joins the NATO.

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Business Day

Small Countries’ New Weapon Against Goliaths: Hacking


Le Thi Thu Hang, a spokeswoman for the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry, this month. Vietnam “does not allow cyberattacks on organizations or individuals,” she said.

  • LUONG THAI LINH / EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY
    By MIKE IVES and PAUL MOZUR
    MAY 14, 2017

HONG KONG — Hackers in Vietnam have been attacking foreign companies and other targets for years, seeking information and using tactics that suggest links to the Vietnamese government, a cybersecurity company said Monday.

The findings, laid out in a report released by the company, FireEye, come as companies and experts look beyond traditional sources of attacks like China and Russia to deal with new or rising threats. Smaller countries are now trying their hand at hacking, experts say, as they seek to follow dissidents, undermine enemies or comb corporate files for trade secrets.

FireEye, a company based in California that deals with large network breaches, said it had watched a Vietnamese group known as OceanLotus target foreign companies in the manufacturing, hospitality and consumer products sectors since at least 2014. While identifying hackers or the governments that might back them can be difficult, FireEye said OceanLotus had used tactics similar to those in attacks previously identified by experts as having targeted Vietnamese dissidents, journalists and governments at odds with the country.

The OceanLotus group “accessed personnel details and other data from multiple victim organizations that would be of very little use to any party other than the Vietnamese government,” said Nick Carr, a security expert at FireEye and the primary author of the report.

Le Thi Thu Hang, a spokeswoman for the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry, called the findings of the report “groundless” and said the country looked forward to working internationally to fight digital breaches. Vietnam “does not allow cyberattacks on organizations or individuals,” she said in an emailed statement. “All cyberattacks or threats to cybersecurity must be condemned and severely punished in accordance with regulations and law.”

FireEye experts said OceanLotus was the first of 32 state-linked hacking groups it had identified worldwide that was neither Russian nor Chinese.

State-sponsored hacking is “the new way to do espionage in the 21st century because it’s much easier to resource compared to a human operation,” said Tim Wellsmore, FireEye’s Asia director of threat intelligence. “This is a low-cost, high-return model.”

Plainclothes security forces in Vietnam, a one-party authoritarian state, regularly spy on journalists, activists and political dissidents, sometimes in almost comically obvious ways — tailing them by motorbike, for example, or eavesdropping in a cafe. Activists in the Vietnamese diaspora have also reported being targeted by what they say is state-sponsored hacking.



FireEye, a company that deals with large network breaches, said it had watched a Vietnamese group known as OceanLotus target foreign companies since at least 2014.
BECK DIEFENBACH / REUTERS


In a 2014 blog post, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy group in California, documented what it said appeared to be a state-affiliated Vietnamese hacking operation that had targeted a range of people critical of the government, including an Associated Press reporter in Vietnam and a pro-democracy blogger in California. FireEye said OceanLotus employed a similar type of email phishing, using messages to bait victims into downloading malicious software or turning over their user names and passwords.

The report also documented the group’s hacking of companies from Vietnam, China, Germany, the Philippines, Britain and the United States. It did not analyze specific breaches in detail, but it said one European manufacturing company had been compromised in 2014 before building a factory in Vietnam. It also said that OceanLotus malware had been detected last year on the network of a global hospitality developer that was planning to expand into the country.

Ben Wootliff, who oversees digital security at the business consultancy Control Risks, said online crime was a risk for local and international companies in Vietnam for a number of reasons, including a rapid pace of digitalization and an improvisational business environment. “There is a lack of desire, awareness and capability to implement decent cyberhygiene,” he said.

The European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam and the American Chamber of Commerce in Hanoi said hacking was a growing problem for businesses in the country.

“More and more companies have to hire experts and train the staff to understand the security risks that are part of their everyday working routine,” said Amanuel Flobbe, the chairman of the Information and Communications Technology Sector Committee at the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam.

Digital security experts say private-sector cybercriminals or activists are responsible for much of the hacking in Southeast Asia. But FireEye said OceanLotus was notable because it appeared to be state-sponsored and used some unique malware that was not commercially available.

By nature asymmetrical, hacking is a natural outlet for smaller countries to confront larger rivals. OceanLotus, for example, has attacked corporate and government entities in China that were focused mostly on oceanic development and fishing, according to a report by the Chinese internet security company Qihoo 360. That may indicate that Vietnam was seeking to learn more about Chinese plans in the South China Sea, where the two countries have disputes over islands and reefs.

The proliferation of government- and military-run hacking in developing countries also raises a broader prospect of what rules should apply to cyberconflicts. This year, the president of Microsoft, Brad Smith, called for a digital Geneva Convention to push back against a raft of political hackings that have targeted elections in the United States and Europe. Reports on other hacking efforts, like United States officials’ targeting of North Korea’s nuclear program and North Korean hackers’ attacks on Sony Pictures, have also heightened concerns.

Mr. Wellsmore said state-sponsored hacking groups in Asia were increasingly using multimillion-dollar tools to achieve their goals.

“That sort of level of sophistication is generally nation-state-sponsored,” he said, “because they’re the ones that have that strategic interest and are willing to invest that sort of money.”

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/05/...companies.html?referer=https://www.google.de/

It's funny how the USA government ( US government and American people are two completely separate set of entities) is the one developing the most dangerous and crippling hacking tools, malware, viruses, and has a cyber warfare budget more than most countries military budget, but this pork chop wastes his time on some hacker in a third world country. He must be bored or have more funding than he knows what to do with.
 
It's funny how the USA government ( US government and American people are two completely separate set of entities) is the one developing the most dangerous and crippling hacking tools, malware, viruses, and has a cyber warfare budget more than most countries military budget, but this pork chop wastes his time on some hacker in a third world country. He must be bored or have more funding than he knows what to do with.
The thing is the people working for US secret services usually don't waste too much time in thinking the weapon they develop can one day turn against them. The best hackers in the scene including the ones employed by the US government think they are the smartest. Well maybe we shouldn't blame the NSA coders that developed EternalBlue exploit. Nobody is sane nor innocent.

Expecting the NSA to stop developing cyberattack tools after this disaster is naive. I would guess some people in Vietnam government and big enterprises will begin to think investing more in cybersecurity will pay off.
 
The thing is the people working for US secret services usually don't waste too much time in thinking the weapon they develop can one day turn against them. The best hackers in the scene including the ones employed by the US government think they are the smartest. Well maybe we shouldn't blame the NSA coders that developed EternalBlue exploit. Nobody is sane nor innocent.

Expecting the NSA to stop developing cyberattack tools after this disaster is naive. I would guess some people in Vietnam government and big enterprises will begin to think investing more in cybersecurity will pay off.

Best hackers will be decided by IQ, hence I believe North Korea will secure some of the best hackers in this world. China, too. The US has clear disadvantage, if they want to turn highest IQ people in this world into their enemies.
 
Best hackers will be decided by IQ, hence I believe North Korea will secure some of the best hackers in this world. China, too. The US has clear disadvantage, if they want to turn highest IQ people in this world into their enemies.
have you ever wondered why most successful software companies come from America: google, facebook, microsoft, sun microsystems, cisco, juniper, ibm, vmware, etc? why not from Japan, China, Korea, Germany, France and the rest? no, the best coder/programmer is not the one with highest IQ. you need both: high IQ and logical thinking. many people are smart, but they are unable to write a single code. however, the best coders are the most weirdest people, much similar to best chess players, they live in their virtual world. Unfortunately I have no chance to join the NSA. the elite club is said to pay the highest salary.
 
IAG 4x4 Guardian Tactical armored personnel carrier that provides a high level of ballistic and blast resistance

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A delegation of Vietnam army general staff led by Sen. Lt. Gen. Pham Ngoc Minh on a visit to the UK Army Headquarter in York, meeting with UK Chief of Joint Operations Lt. Gen. John Lorimer. Vietnam is ready to take over the control of a level-2 field hospital in South Sudan from the British Army Command in the second quarter of 2018. It is expected Vietnam will deploy a group of Special Forces to South Sudan to protect the site.

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IAG 4x4 Guardian Tactical armored personnel carrier that provides a high level of ballistic and blast resistance

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A delegation of Vietnam army general staff led by Sen. Lt. Gen. Pham Ngoc Minh on a visit to the UK Army Headquarter in York, meeting with UK Chief of Joint Operations Lt. Gen. John Lorimer. Vietnam is ready to take over the control of a level-2 field hospital in South Sudan from the British Army Command in the second quarter of 2018. It is expected Vietnam will deploy a group of Special Forces to South Sudan to protect the site.

UK_OSXF.jpg

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After studying the war in Yemen, these vehicles seem to be sitting ducks for RPG's.

It's almost as if 5 soldier armed with RPG-29 can take out tanks, APC's, or combat 4x4 like the ones above. You can't beat that kind of trade off. It's like trading a pawn for a rook in every fight. The Saudi's are going to go broke fighting the Houthi who aren't even interested in heavy weapons platform. After they disable it with an RPG or two, they blow it up.

It may be that Saudi's just aren't effective fighters.


They're just having a field day with Saudi mechanized. What i don't understand is, why they do not salvage any of the vehicles they disable. They should at least remove the machine guns from those vehicle. If you compare this to Vietnam, they salvage un-exploded bombs. These would be a gold mine.
 
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