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ANSWER: No. Enough evidence has accumulated over the past eight years that the
APT32 is located in Vietnam and is most likely affiliated with a government ministry or
department. The Ministry of National Defence established its Cyber Command in
2017. The Ministry of Public Security has developed formidable cyber capabilities as
well.
Q4. Is there anything else you think is worth noting about this case?
ANSWER: We know that Vietnam government ministries and other agencies have
suffered from state and non-state actor cyberattacks in the past. We also know that
there has been a spike of cyberattacks in Southeast Asia during the COVID-19
pandemic. These incidents may have led Vietnam to take retaliatory action.
However, according to Recorded Future’s Pulse Report, “[the] Insikt Group has
discovered a new malware campaign targeting the Cambodian government” and
identified “several Cambodian victim organisations communicating with this
infrastructure [APT32 or OceanLotus]...” This would rule out the hypothesis that
Vietnam was retaliating against hackers based in Cambodia.
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