“Based on incident response investigations, product detections, and intelligence observations along with additional publications on the same operators, FireEye assesses that APT32 is a cyber-espionage group aligned with Vietnamese government interests. The targeting of private sector interests by APT32 is notable and FireEye believes the actor poses significant risk to companies doing business in, or preparing to invest in, the country,” the report, published on Monday, reads.
According to the report, Vietnamese, US, Philippine and European companies fell victim to the attacks by the so-called APT32 group (also known as the OceanLotus Group) from 2014 to 2017.
In response to the FireEye’s report, Hanoi refuted the allegations and denied its involvement in any kind of the cyber espionage.
"The Government of Viet Nam does not allow any form of cyber-attacks against organizations or individuals … All cyber-attacks or threats to cybersecurity must be condemned and severely punished in accordance with regulations and laws," the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson said, as quoted by the CNBC broadcaster.
In April, the international police cooperation agency Interpol said that its anti-cybercrime operation in Southeast Asia showed that around 270 websites in the region, among them several government portals with information on citizens, were laden with a malware code.
According to Interpol, almost 9,000 command and control servers in eight member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which Vietnam is a part of, were compromised through ransomware, DDoS attacks and spam.
