News Archive

All news

Vietnam refutes 'malware' claims

06/04/2010 11:57:00

Google and McAfee's claims that Vietnam had used malicious computer programs to hack websites and spy on political opponents have been dismissed as "groundless" by the communist country.

The cyber attacks had targeted "potentially thousands of people", according to Google, who said the "malware" software had apparently been used to spy on opponents of a controversial bauxite mine planned for Vietnam's Central Highlands.

Chief technology officer of McAfee, George Kurtz, said the perpetrators "may have political motivations and may have some allegiance to the government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam".

However, Vietnam's foreign ministry spokeswomen Nguyen Phuong Nga said the comments on Google and McAfee's security blogs last week were "groundless".

Facebook has been blocked in Vietnam since late in 2009, but the government has not acknowledged directly blocking the social networking website, though workers at two state-controlled internet service providers said they had been told to block it.

Copyright © Press Association 2010

Facebook Twitter DZone It! Digg It! StumbleUpon Technorati Del.icio.us NewsVine Reddit Blinklist Add diigo bookmark