Security News > 2021 > February > Vietnamese Hackers Target Human Rights Defenders: Amnesty
Between February 2018 and November 2020, Vietnam-linked hacking group Ocean Lotus targeted Vietnamese human rights activists in the country and abroad with spyware, a new report from Amnesty International reveals.
Also referred to as APT32, APT-C-00, SeaLotus, and Cobalt Kitty, Ocean Lotus is a highly sophisticated group that has been active since at least 2012, mainly focused on media, human rights, and civil society organizations, but also targeting Vietnamese political dissidents, foreign governments and companies.
"The investigation conducted by Amnesty International's Security Lab revealed that two HRDs and a non-profit human rights organization from Viet Nam have been targeted by a coordinated spyware campaign," Amnesty reveals.
Between February 2018 and November 2020, Ocean Lotus also targeted Vietnamese Overseas Initiative for Conscience Empowerment, a non-profit human rights organization that provides support to Vietnamese refugees.
On macOS systems, a variant of a spyware exclusively used by Ocean Lotus to target Apple's desktop platform was used.
"Our investigation was not able to attribute Ocean Lotus' activities to any company or government entity. However, the extensive list of people and organizations targeted by Ocean Lotus over the years shows that it has a clear focus on targeting human rights and media groups from Viet Nam and neighboring countries. This raises questions about whether Ocean Lotus is linked to Vietnamese state actors," Amnesty notes.