London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Oct 03, 2025

Vietnamese hackers targeted Chinese state organisations for coronavirus information, say researchers

Vietnamese hackers targeted Chinese state organisations for coronavirus information, say researchers

US cybersecurity firm FireEye said hacking group APT32 tried to compromise Ministry of Emergency Management and Wuhan government emails. FireEye believes the group operates on behalf of Vietnam’s government and was searching for information about Covid-19 and attempts to combat it

Hackers working in support of the Vietnamese government have attempted to break into Chinese state organisations at the centre of Beijing’s effort to contain the coronavirus outbreak, US cybersecurity firm FireEye said on Wednesday.

FireEye said a hacking group known as APT32 had tried to compromise the personal and professional email accounts of staff at China’s Ministry of Emergency Management and the government of Wuhan, the Chinese city at the centre of the global coronavirus pandemic.

Investigators at FireEye and other cybersecurity firms said they believe APT32 operates on behalf of the Vietnamese government. The group’s recent activity mirrors attempts by a host of state-backed hackers to compromise governments, businesses and health agencies in search of information about the new disease and attempts to combat it.

“These attacks speak to the virus being an intelligence priority – everyone is throwing everything they’ve got at it, and APT32 is what Vietnam has,” said Ben Read, senior manager for analysis at FireEye’s Mandiant threat intelligence unit.

The Vietnamese government did not respond to a request for comment. Messages sent to email addresses used by the hackers went unanswered.

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the Chinese Ministry of Emergency Management and the Wuhan city government did not immediately respond to faxed requests for comment.

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 300.

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 earliest hacking attempt identified by FireEye predated the first known international infection by a week, he said.

“It shows both a distrust about Chinese government announcements and a sense that when China sneezes, it is its neighbours that get the flu – in this case literally.”

FireEye said APT32 targeted a small group of people with emails that included tracking links to notify the hackers when they were opened. The attackers then planned to send further emails with malicious attachments containing a virus called METALJACK that would give them illicit access to their victims’ computers.

Marc-Étienne Léveillé, a researcher at Slovakia-based software security firm ESET, said APT32 had used the same malware in recent months to target other governments and commercial organisations in east Asia, as well as political activists and dissidents in Vietnam.

It is unclear if the intrusion attempts in China were successful but the attacks show that hackers ranging from cyber criminals to state-backed spies have had to quickly reorganise their operations in response to the coronavirus, said John Hultquist, senior director of analysis at Mandiant.

“This is precisely what we would expect. A crisis develops and there’s a shortage of information, so intelligence collectors are deployed,” he said.

“This crisis is of such an extreme interest to every country on earth that it surpasses the intelligence necessities normally associated with armed conflict. It is absolutely existential.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×