WASHINGTON - A Vietnam-based hacking group is learning from China's playbook, using increasingly sophisticated cyber-attacks to spy on competitors and help Vietnam catch up to global competitors, according to cybersecurity experts.
Vietnam has also targeted American businesses relevant to Vietnam's economy, including the consumer products industry, for years, according to experts. Vietnamese government hackers have likely"seen how successful the Chinese have been at building cyber-espionage capabilities and cybersurveillance capabilities" according to Mr Eric Rosenbach, co-director of the Belfer Centre for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School and a former assistant secretary of defence for global security under Mr Obama.
In 2017, his team investigated a series of hacks in the US, Germany and multiple countries in Asia and found that the group had spent at least three years targeting foreign governments, journalists, dissidents and"foreign corporations with a vested interest in Vietnam's manufacturing, consumer products and hospitality sectors".