A Virtual Vietnam War
It's not quite a declaration of war, but Rep. Loretta Sanchez is set to do battle with Vietnam over using malware to illicitly monitor the Internet activity of human rights and democracy activists.
Sanchez, the California Democrat who chairs the House Armed Services subcommittee with cybersecurity jurisdiction and co-chairs of the Congressional Caucus on Vietnam, said in a statement Thursday that she's outraged that Vietnam's government has been using the Net as a weapon against its own people. Sanchez said:
"Time and time again, President Nguyen Minh Triết has proven he will stop at nothing to silence critics of his regime and shut down the free flow of information and communication in Vietnam."
In its security blog posted Wednesday, Google revealed that attacks, similar to those originating in China last year, have targeted potentially tens of thousands Vietnamese Internet users from around the world who download a Vietnamese keyboard language program infested with malware. Neel Mehta of Google's security team wrote:
"These infected machines have been used both to spy on their owners as well as participate in distributed denial of service attacks against blogs containing messages of political dissent. Specifically, these attacks have tried to squelch opposition to bauxite mining efforts in Vietnam, an important and emotionally charged issue in the country."
The Google didn't directly implicate Vietnamese officials , but Sanchez accused the government of having blocked access to a number of websites, including Facebook and other popular Internet forums, in the form of denial-of-service attacks, characterizing this as unacceptable conduct from a country that wants to be an international political player, especially one that has promised to adhere to basic human rights standards and the rule of law. Sanchez added:
"It's time for the U.S. and international communities, and any Internet service providers that are concerned by these attacks, to say 'enough is enough!'"
Sanchez said she's applying for a visa to visit Vietnam, and if approved, intends to meet with human rights activists to get their side of the story as well as the Vietnamese Ministry of Information and Communications to discuss free speech and personally condemn these cyber attacks.
But she's unlikely to make the trip, having been turned down several times by the Vietnamese government, according to a newspaper in her Orange County district, which has one of the largest ethnically Vietnamese communities outside Vietnam.
Also see:
Google Stops Censoring Chinese Site
Bills Target International Cyber Criminals
Google Attack: Prelude to More Intrusions
