In a post dated March 30, Google security expert Neel Mehta said the company had confirmed the existence of malware originating from Vietnam that "broadly targeted Vietnamese computer users around the world."

Google and the anti-virus software company McAfee Inc said a computer virus of the trojan-horse type, had established a virtual network of infected computers known as a botnet.

Controllers inside Vietnam then directed the botnet to stage attacks on websites that criticized Chinese-run bauxite mines in Vietnam's Central Highlands area.

The controversial bauxite mines have been criticized by scientists on environmental grounds and by military figures on national-security grounds.

Websites such as www.boxitvn.com have been repeatedly disabled by attacks that began December 12.

Writer Pham Toan told German Press Agency dpa that he and other administrators of the site initially believed the cyber-attacks originated in China.

However, Toan said he was led to believe that the attacks came at least in part from within the country when Vietnamese police began interrogating him and others involved with the sites.

Similar attacks have also hit other independent Vietnamese websites. In December hackers accessed the literary website www.talawas.org, based outside Vietnam, and posted a message saying it had closed due to technical problems. They then launched attacks that forced the site to close until February 1.

The website is still subject to periodic attacks, a source close to Talawas said.

The independent discussion forum X-Cafe was forced to move from Vietnam to servers in Europe.

According to a blog post Wednesday by McAfee the virus originally hit the website of the Vietnam Professional Organization, is a politically independent emigre organization based in the US and Europe.

By getting users to download supposed Vietnamese-language keyboard software, the virus spread to some 800,000 users.

"Specifically, these attacks have tried to squelch opposition to bauxite mining efforts in Vietnam, an important and emotionally charged issue in the country," Metha said.

"We believe that the perpetrators may have political motivations and may have some allegiance to the government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam," McAfee's statement said.

Deutsche Presse Agentur - April 1st, 2010

Google: online attacks aimed at Vietnam's critics

HANOI — 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."

Google engineer Neel Mehta wrote in the posting, "these attacks have tried to squelch opposition to bauxite mining efforts in Vietnam, an important and emotionally charged issue in the country."

The mining project involving a subsidiary of Chinese state-run aluminum company Chinalco is planned for Vietnam's Central Highlands and has attracted strong opposition.

Foes fear the mine would cause major environmental problems and lead to Chinese workers flooding into the strategically sensitive region.

The computer security firm McAfee, which has investigated the malware, also discussed the attacks in a blog posting Tuesday.

"We believe that the perpetrators may have political motivations and may have some allegiance to the government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam," wrote George Kurtz, McAfee's chief technology officer.

Vietnamese officials did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

Last fall, the government detained several bloggers who criticized the bauxite mine, and in December, a Web site called bauxitevietnam.info, which had drawn millions of visitors opposed to the mine, was hacked.

The malware apparently began circulating at about that time, according the McAfee blog. It said someone hacked into a Web site run by the California-based Vietnamese Professionals Society and replaced a keyboard program that can be downloaded from that site with a malicious program.

Google says its dispute with China was triggered by a hacking attack that emanated from the mainland and attempts to snoop on dissidents' e-mail.

Last week, Google shut down its search operations in China, Vietnam's northern neighbor, after complaints of cyberattacks and censorship there. Google now redirects search queries from China's mainland to the freer Chinese territory of Hong Kong.

On Tuesday, many users of the Chinese Google search engine experienced difficulties. Analysts suggested the troubles may be linked to the company's decision to move to Hong Kong.

Google initially said it was an in-house technical problem but later shifted its explanation, blaming the "Great Firewall" — the nickname for the network of filters that keep mainland China's Web surfers from accessing material the government deems sensitive.

The sudden disruption and lack of explanation fit with how the government has brought companies to heel previously in the heavily monitored Chinese Internet industry, analysts said.

"I don't think anyone should be surprised," said Bill Bishop, a Beijing Internet entrepreneur and author of the technology blog Digicha. Tuesday's problems were payback by the government, he said, because "Google humiliated China."

By Ben Stocking - April 1st, 2010