Vietnam-backed hacking group APT32 has coordinated several spyware attacks targeting Vietnamese human rights defenders (HRDs) between February 2018 and November 2020.
The state hackers also pointed their attacks at a nonprofit (NPO) human rights organization from Vietnam, as Amnesty International's Security Lab
revealed (full report
here).
The spyware used by the APT32 hackers allowed them to read and write documents on compromised systems, launch malicious tools and programs, and monitor their victims' activities.
"These latest attacks by Ocean Lotus highlight the repression Vietnamese activists at home and abroad face for standing up for human rights," Amnesty Tech researcher Likhita Banerji said. "This unlawful surveillance violates the right to privacy and stifles freedom of expression." "The Vietnamese government must carry out an independent investigation. Any refusal to do so will only increase suspicions that the government is complicit in the Ocean Lotus attacks."
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