HANOI, Vietnam -- Google Inc. accused Vietnam on Wednesday of stifling political dissent with cyberattacks, the latest complaint by the Internet giant against a communist regime following a public dispute with China over online censorship.
Like China, Vietnam tightly controls the flow of information and has said it reserves the right to take “appropriate action" against Web sites it deems harmful to national security.
The cyberattacks targeted “potentially tens of thousands," a posting on Google's online security blog said. It said it was drawing attention to the Vietnam attacks because they underscored the need for the international community “to take cybersecurity seriously to help keep free opinion flowing."
Google apparently stumbled onto a scheme targeting Vietnamese-speaking Internet users around the world while investigating the surveillance of e-mail accounts belonging to Chinese human rights activists, one analyst suggested. The attackers appear to have targeted specific Web sites and duped users into downloading malware programs, said Nart Villeneuve from The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. That may have allowed the infiltration and surveillance of activists, he said.
“This kind of stuff happens all the time in China," said Villeneuve. “It has a chilling effect. It silences people."
Like China, Vietnam tightly controls the flow of information and has said it reserves the right to take “appropriate action" against Web sites it deems harmful to national security.
The cyberattacks targeted “potentially tens of thousands," a posting on Google's online security blog said. It said it was drawing attention to the Vietnam attacks because they underscored the need for the international community “to take cybersecurity seriously to help keep free opinion flowing."
Google apparently stumbled onto a scheme targeting Vietnamese-speaking Internet users around the world while investigating the surveillance of e-mail accounts belonging to Chinese human rights activists, one analyst suggested. The attackers appear to have targeted specific Web sites and duped users into downloading malware programs, said Nart Villeneuve from The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. That may have allowed the infiltration and surveillance of activists, he said.
“This kind of stuff happens all the time in China," said Villeneuve. “It has a chilling effect. It silences people."
