390
Vietnam
Surveillance
The Vietnamese government stringently monitors objectionable Internet activities. An
Internet surveillance unit under the Ministry of Public Security is particularly interested in customers who access politically sensitive sites,
36 and fi rewalls have been
deployed to block access to overseas Web sites that host sensitive content, such as
international news and human rights Web sites.
37 In addition, under Decision Number
15 of 2010, domain servers in Hanoi are required to install a copy of the Internet
Service Retailers Management Software, a government-controlled software developed
by the National University of Hanoi.
38 Some believe that the software is for blocking
as well as for surveillance.
39
The growing popularity of social networking Web sites has prompted the Vietnamese government to develop its own, “ Go.vn ” ( http://go.vn ), in order to compete with
other popular platforms. Go.vn is similar to Facebook, but it is government run, and
users must register with offi cial identifi cation details, including government-issued
identity numbers. Vietnamese offi cials have described Go.vn as being the country ’ s
biggest online investment so far, and it is expected that by 2015 Go.vn will boast more
than 40 million registered users.
40 Some analysts believe that the site will strengthen
the state ’ s Web monitoring and surveillance capacities.
Cyber Attacks
Harassment, detainment, and imprisonment of bloggers as well as attacks on their
Web sites and e-mails occur regularly in Vietnam.
41 Viet Nam News , a state-run newspaper, reported that more than 1,000 Web sites were attacked in 2009.
42 Although the
newspaper attributed such attacks to a general lack of security protection for Vietnamese Web sites, many Web sites that have faced cyber attacks generally contain
dissident content.
43 Web sites with content critical of the state (including blogs and
discussion forums) that are hosted outside of Vietnam have had administrative passwords stolen or suffered dedicated denial of service (DDoS) attacks.
44 Viet Tan, the
Vietnam Reform Party, often reports experiencing DDoS attacks. In April 2009, coinciding with the 24th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon, Viet Tan ’ s Web site suffered a
large-scale DDoS attack. Attackers compromised Web sites and installed a malicious
program so that visitors executed the malicious script on their computers with instructions to attack the Viet Tan Web site. Viet Tan members have also reportedly received
targeted malware attacks through e-mail.
45
It is unclear who is behind the attacks and whether they are state sanctioned;
however, cyber attacks have become instrumental to controlling online content and,
as demonstrated recently by the Vulcanbot and the Vecebot botnets, have become
increasingly sophisticated.
Vietnam
Surveillance
The Vietnamese government stringently monitors objectionable Internet activities. An
Internet surveillance unit under the Ministry of Public Security is particularly interested in customers who access politically sensitive sites,
36 and fi rewalls have been
deployed to block access to overseas Web sites that host sensitive content, such as
international news and human rights Web sites.
37 In addition, under Decision Number
15 of 2010, domain servers in Hanoi are required to install a copy of the Internet
Service Retailers Management Software, a government-controlled software developed
by the National University of Hanoi.
38 Some believe that the software is for blocking
as well as for surveillance.
39
The growing popularity of social networking Web sites has prompted the Vietnamese government to develop its own, “ Go.vn ” ( http://go.vn ), in order to compete with
other popular platforms. Go.vn is similar to Facebook, but it is government run, and
users must register with offi cial identifi cation details, including government-issued
identity numbers. Vietnamese offi cials have described Go.vn as being the country ’ s
biggest online investment so far, and it is expected that by 2015 Go.vn will boast more
than 40 million registered users.
40 Some analysts believe that the site will strengthen
the state ’ s Web monitoring and surveillance capacities.
Cyber Attacks
Harassment, detainment, and imprisonment of bloggers as well as attacks on their
Web sites and e-mails occur regularly in Vietnam.
41 Viet Nam News , a state-run newspaper, reported that more than 1,000 Web sites were attacked in 2009.
42 Although the
newspaper attributed such attacks to a general lack of security protection for Vietnamese Web sites, many Web sites that have faced cyber attacks generally contain
dissident content.
43 Web sites with content critical of the state (including blogs and
discussion forums) that are hosted outside of Vietnam have had administrative passwords stolen or suffered dedicated denial of service (DDoS) attacks.
44 Viet Tan, the
Vietnam Reform Party, often reports experiencing DDoS attacks. In April 2009, coinciding with the 24th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon, Viet Tan ’ s Web site suffered a
large-scale DDoS attack. Attackers compromised Web sites and installed a malicious
program so that visitors executed the malicious script on their computers with instructions to attack the Viet Tan Web site. Viet Tan members have also reportedly received
targeted malware attacks through e-mail.
45
It is unclear who is behind the attacks and whether they are state sanctioned;
however, cyber attacks have become instrumental to controlling online content and,
as demonstrated recently by the Vulcanbot and the Vecebot botnets, have become
increasingly sophisticated.