TOP 6 HACKERS’ CYBER ATTACKS THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD

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Along with the trend of global digital transformation, the number of cyber attacks is also increasing year by year, with increasing severity and sophistication.

Let’s take a look at some of the largest recorded cyberattacks in the world with VSEC: 

 

1. Hackers infiltrated the data of the famous software company Adobe (2013)

Adobe announced in October 2013 that hackers had stolen data from the internet, including up to 2.9 million accounts’ personal information (usernames, passwords, real names, credit card numbers, and expiration dates). Soon after, internet hackers reported that this database had up to 150 million accounts (38 million of which are still active).

 

2. Sony’s expensive lesson in ignoring hackers’ warnings.

  • In April 2011, hackers targeted Sony PlayStation Network (PSN), causing Sony’s Multiplayer gaming service, online game purchases, and other content to be leaked. The personal information of 77 million global gamers was involved in the incident, and hackers acquired access to their banking accounts.
  • Sony was forced to pay $15 million in compensation to individuals harmed in order to pacify users. This corporation, on the other hand, detested hackers at the time when it rejected the warning for exposing the database vulnerability. The data is entirely unprotected and vulnerable to SQL Injection attacks.

Sony Pictures Entertainment, a Sony subsidiary, was attacked in November 2014 by a virus called “Guardians of Peace,” and the damage was significantly worse than before, surpassing 100 terabytes (1TB = roughly 1000 GB) with stolen confidential data. This time, hackers utilized the internet to steal movie scripts, emails, and personal information from 47,000 employees, forcing many to resign as a result of the loss.

 

3. A nightmare for the Korean banking system in 2014.

The key lesson learned by the Korean government after the cyber attack in January 2014 when hackers stole up to 100 million credit card numbers. 20 million more bank accounts were also compromised. The number of clients in these banks decreased by 2 million due to their concern that their personal information would be revealed, therefore they went to the bank to deactivate the card or switch to a safer bank.

 

4. The American credit company, Equifax, was on the verge of bankruptcy (2017)

 

Equifax, the credit reporting agency in the United States, acknowledged in a report that it has been dealing with a problem for months as a result of an internet attack. In July of 2017, they discovered the attack, which exposed the sensitive personal information of 143 million users in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, as well as roughly 200,000 credit card numbers. 

Almost no solutions could assist the organization in recovering the information that was leaked as a result of the 2017 cyber attack. This incident was discovered as a result of an Apache Struts vulnerability that hackers completely exploited. The consequences were so severe that the company’s top shareholders and management were obliged to sell their stock quickly in order to avoid the crisis.

 

5. Online dating app Tinder was also a victim (2015)

This online dating app was hacked over the internet in 2015 with the intention of collecting all of its customers’ information. The genuine name, date of birth, postal code, IP address, and even sexual preferences of 4 million users have been made public on a forum accessible via the Tor browser.

But Tinder has not yet come to its senses; in 2016, it experienced greater losses, and the effects were 100 times worse this time. 400 million accounts have had sensitive information stolen, and 20 years of data from the massive dating service is now publicly available online. The Local File Inclusion approach (an attack technique for transferring a local file straight to the hacker’s internet resource repository) was utilized by the hackers.

 

6. Hotel Marriott customers’ information was exposed

This internet attack was carried out by hackers who targeted a database of up to 500 million Starwood hotel guests (including bank accounts) owned by Marriott. The security flaw has existed since 2014, however, the vulnerability just became apparent in September 2018. Marriott was only involved in the largest security litigation ever once.

The number of online attacks continues to climb year after year, necessitating the development of a well-defended, comprehensive network security system for information security. VSEC, Vietnam Network Security Joint Stock Company, provides the most cost-effective security solutions for organizations in information security evaluation, monitoring, warning, and troubleshooting.

Practical exercise for the largest energy corporation in Vietnam

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Leading energy corporation in Vietnam, operating in key national sectors, ensuring energy security for Vietnam

As a large Corporation with many member units, there is a difference in qualifications in the field of information security between units. It is necessary to comply with the regulations of the State management agencies on ensuring information security for key systems. The exam is constructed in accordance with the application’s information safety incident response process. The teams are geographically spread out.

VSEC provides information security exercise services for officers who are in charge of information safety at all affiliated units, with a scale of more than 150 people. VSEC organized 2 exercises in 2021 with a gradually increasing level in accordance with the qualifications of the participating officers. The regulations and policies of the state and the unit are researched and combined to build a suitable set of exams for the characteristics of the unit. A common test system is created and virtual machines are provided for each team to exercise practically. Multiple bridge points are created to connect and monitor teams during exercises. Call centers and online support groups are created before, during, and after the competition.

This helps equip information security knowledge from basic to advanced for officers in charge of information safety. Officers can also be familiar with possible information security loss situations, and plans and solutions to be implemented to overcome information security incidents.

Millions of websites are at risk

Cyber world trending VSEC - BLOG

Today, WordPress is one of the most popular website-building tools all over the world, and it is no exception in Vietnam. Data thieves will naturally direct their attention here. Consequently, its plugin – Elementor Pro – has been exploited by malicious cybercriminals who are taking advantage of a security flaw that was just patched with the intention of stealing sensitive information.

This flaw, identified as a flawed access control situation, is present in 3.11.6 and earlier releases. In the plugin’s latest version, 3.11.7, released on March 22nd, the issue was fixed. 

The Tel Aviv-based firm claimed in its release notes, “Improve code security enforcement in WooCommerce components. It is estimated that over 12 million websites use the premium plugin. An authenticated attacker can completely take over a WordPress site with WooCommerce functionality if they are able to exploit this highly critical vulnerability.”

 

“A malicious user only needs to turn on the sign-up page (if it’s off) and change the default user role to admin and they can instantly create an account with administrative privileges. With this authority, they can “redirect the site to another malware domain, upload an unauthorized plugin, or backdoor, and further exploit the site” Patchstack claimed in a warning released on March 30th, 2023.

Patchstack also reports that the flaw is being exploited from many IP addresses in an attempt to upload arbitrary PHP and ZIP packages. Users of the Elementor Pro plugin should upgrade to version 3.11.7 or the most recent version, 3.12.0, as soon as possible to protect themselves from security breaches.

State Bank of Vietnam has begun deploying information security drills.

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The State Bank of Vietnam is an agency of the Vietnamese government that is responsible for managing the country’s currency and reports directly to the government. The Department of Information Technology – SBV is the government agency in Vietnam responsible for overseeing and administering banking IT operations in general and information security in particular.

 

With over 40 financial institutions and banks taking part in the drill, there are a great deal of systems that need to be ready and running smoothly. It was difficult to coordinate the BTC with the experimental locations since the participating banks and financial institutions were located all over Vietnam, from North to South and used both online and offline methods of communication. Due to the high general capacity of the units and the specialized nature of the troops involved in the information security drills, significant investment in terms of content is always required, yet the drills must remain grounded in reality.

More than 40 banks and financial institutions active in the Vietnamese market are represented by competition teams with the State Bank acting as the regulatory body for VSEC, which provides security training services. Participating banks and financial institutions spread across the North and South, with both online and offline forms, making the organization and connection between the organizers and the test sites very complicated. During practice, they set up a network of bridges to facilitate communication and keep tabs on the various groups. They set up hotlines and online forums to help customers before, during, and after the event.

Officers in charge of data security can benefit from VSEC’s ability to equip them with fundamental to advanced information security expertise. They also help increase their awareness of potential information security loss scenarios and the plans and solutions that can be put into action to address such incidents.

Efficient use of Pentest – What did VSEC expert say?

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Webinar: “Stay Ahead of Cyber Threats”

On March 29, the event “Stay Ahead of Cyber Threats,” organized by Vietnamese Security Network JSC in collaboration with VNG Cloud, was successfully held and left positive impressions on the Vietnamese Tech and business communities. The event featured speakers from renowned cybersecurity institutions, such as Kaspersky, VNG Cloud, VSEC, and Megazone Cloud. The webinar drew in more than 450 participants due to the insightful information provided by industry experts.

In this webinar, Mr. Bui Trung Thanh, a Solution Consultant at VSEC, shared a new method for optimizing the cost of ensuring information security. Pentest is the most method often used for application cybersecurity.

 

PTaaS – Cost and time optimization

“Most businesses today lack a dedicated cybersecurity team, and their engineers lack the skills and knowledge necessary to implement and evaluate information security. That’s why businesses often choose to hire outsource entities to evaluate cybersecurity for their applications,” shared Mr. Thanh.

In addition, Mr. Thanh described the difficulties and limitations of conventional Pentesting, such as time, resources, and skills. To address this issue, a representative from VSEC introduced Pentest as a Service (PTaaS) – an optimized pentesting method that, while not new globally, is not yet wide spread in Vietnam.

PTaaS is a service that offers an automated vulnerability exploitation platform, combining AI/ML to simplify the search, analysis, and reporting of vulnerabilities. This shortens the implementation process and optimizes deployment costs. The combination of technical process automation, engineers’ expertise, and the artificial intelligence of PTaaS ensures the optimal execution processes when evaluating a specific application.

Clearly, PTaaS can help businesses carry out cybersecurity assessments more optimally than traditional methods, reducing costs and evaluation time, and better meeting businesses’ current needs.

Vietnam ranked 8th in top 10 countries on Cyber security 2022

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According to the National Cyber Power Index 2022* study, Vietnam has made a stunning leap from 20th rank (in 2020) to 8th place (in 2022) on the list of countries with the highest information security capabilities in the world.

The World’s Top 10 Most Secure Countries for Cyber Security in 2022

Notably, Vietnam jumped from 16th to 3rd place on the intent index (which measures the level of interest and investment in Cybersecurity). This is a positive signal in raising the awareness and capacity to ensure information security of the government as well as the community in the country.

Mr. Phillip Hung Cao, Technology Solution Architect, Zero Trust Strategist, shared his thoughts on the report, saying, “Vietnam is in the 8th position in the NCPI 2022 report, showing that we are on the right track in actively creating diverse information safe playgrounds and communities for all ages and all growing together. We need to keep and cultivate an optimistic outlook for the future.”

*In 2020, the Belfer Center at HARVARD Kennedy School published its first National Cyber Power Index (NCPI) study. Mr. Eric Rosenback, Co-Director of the Belfer Center, shared the project’s vision to become a preeminent and rigorous research institution that provides solutions to the challenges faced by national leaders as a result of cyber attacks and conflicts. Organizational leaders can use the information gleaned from these studies to better prepare their armed forces to win a cyber conflict, mitigate the effects of attacks by using legal and regulatory mechanisms, etc. 

Currently, eight indicators—financial, surveillance, intelligence, commerce, defense, information control, destructive, and normative—are used to compile the report. Limitations in the report’s ability to measure such delicate aspects as troop strength, intelligence capacity, etc. were also noted. Vietnam jumped from 20th to 8th on the rank as a result of improvements in many categories, including defense, trade, destruction, and norms. 

Download the report here

According to National Cyber Power Index 2022

Enhance human capacity, assurance the 2nd network safety and security in 2022 at Vietnam Electricity

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Following the goal of enhancing the network security capacity of the staff in charge of IT – Information Security at Vietnam Electricity, on December 16, The Vietnamese Security Company Network (VSEC) and VNCert collaborated with Vietnam Electricity to successfully organize the second practical exercise program to assure network safety in 2022 at Son La Hall, EVN building, 11 Cua Bac.

 

 

At the beginning of August 2022, EVN Group successfully organized the first cybersecurity exercise 2022 with the title “Ensuring information security for the ERP system”. During the rehearsal, the participating units were corporations, member units, and power plants that were involved in dealing with actual information insecurity situations on the ERP system. The drill teams demonstrated their information security skills, executed and complied with procedures for responding to information security incidents and receiving incidents, and supporting operations and other processes to ensure safe and stable service provision for EVN’s ERP system.

Following the goal of enhancing the network security capacity of the staff in charge of IT – Information Security at Vietnam Electricity, VSEC, and VNCert collaborated with the Group to organize the second Group-level practical exercise program. The Electronic Office Integrated Information System was chosen as the implementation object in this rehearsal. This is a critical application that is used throughout the Group as well as its member units.

 

 

Mr. Dao Hoang Duong, Deputy Head of EVN’s Department of Telecommunications and Information Technology, stated at the practice that, over the years, with the growth and application of IT in digital transformation, EVN has paid great attention to information security activities and directed its units to perform many tasks of information safety and security.

Mr. Dao Hoang Duong – Deputy Head of EVN’s Department of Telecommunications and Information Technology gave the opening speech

 

Mr. Truong Duc Luong – Representative of The Vietnamese Security Network Joint Stock Company emphasized during the practical exercise: “While we are sitting here, our system is under attack. Therefore, network security is one of the activities that are extremely necessary and cannot be abandoned when we put into operation the information system.”

Mr. Truong Duc Luong – Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Vietnamese Security Company Network (VSEC)

 

The practical exercises are held in person and online. At EVN’s headquarters, there were 6 teams participating in the practical exercises under 3 scenarios: Investigation of digital signatures; Investigation of attacks and exploitation of the security flaw in the electronic office integrated information system; and Investigation of the cause of data loss.

Serious and urgent atmosphere of the practical exercises

 

The practical exercise finished successfully after 5 hours of intensive focus, and the teams also achieved outstanding results. Participating units acknowledged pleasure after receiving more helpful information, knowledge, and skills for application and deployment for activities to ensure network safety and security at their units.

The organizers awarded prizes to the teams

 

The first prize belongs to Ho Chi Minh City Power Corporation  

 

Mr. Truong Duc Luong expressed on this practice “VSEC is honored to have accompanied Vietnam Electricity from the early days when the exercise was simulated and now it is a practical exercise, we can witness the amazing improvement of the security personnel via the practices – these are also the great values that the practice ensures the safety and network security bring.”

Shortage of cyber security personel – Attractive opportunity to develop your career

Cyber world trending VSEC - BLOG

Building a team of high-caliber Cybersecurity specialists is regarded as one of the solid foundations for ensuring the national Cybersecurity framework and realizing Vietnam’s aspiration to become a global information security superpower.

As Minister of Information and Communications (MIC) Nguyen Manh Hung shared: “We must build a team of Cybersecurity specialists as the core. Particularly in the field of Cybersecurity, both good experts and industry play an important role. In addition to enterprises and tools, there must be outstanding individuals. Due to the fact that the tool only tackles known vulnerabilities. Unknown vulnerabilities can only be addressed by experts.”

According to the Information Security Center (ISC), the global scarcity of cybersecurity talent is estimated at more than 2.7 million positions. Although this number is lower than last year’s figure of 700,000, it continues to demonstrate a significant shortage of cybersecurity personnel. This workforce shortage is most severe in the Asia-Pacific region, where an estimated 1.42 million individuals are required – the largest shortage of any region in the whole world. This problem is not an exception in Vietnam. According to the Information Security Department (Ministry of Information and Communications), the human resources in Cybersecurity have failed to meet the demand in terms of both quantity and quality, particularly in the locality. By the end of 2020, Vietnam’s civilian force in Cybersecurity is estimated to consist of 50,000 individuals, while by 2021, we will require approximately 700,000 individuals. Therefore, Vietnam faces a paucity of human resources in Cybersecurity.

This significant demand creates extremely potential opportunities for those who are pursuing the field of cybersecurity with salaries and benefits that are considered one of the most attractive in the labor market today. However, the journey to pursue the path of becoming engineers and cybersecurity experts will also face many difficulties and challenges.

In fact, cyberattacks around the world, including in Vietnam, have grown in scope, complexity, and sophistication, with an increasing level of destruction. As a result, the quality of Cybersecurity human resources is another issue that requires consideration. Many young individuals who are interested in the Cybersecurity industry, or those who are studying and have a passion for this field, are still unsure about the path and direction of their personal growth in the Information Security industry.

With the objective of providing young personnel in the cybersecurity industry with a clear understanding of the industry, direction, and motivation to pursue careers as future cybersecurity experts, Cyber Security Technology Village organized the Seminar: “Cyber Security Training in Vietnam” within the framework of the TECHFEST 2022 series of events hosted by the Ministry of Science and Technology. Students and IT personnel who are interested in cybersecurity will find this event to be extremely beneficial and informative due to the participation of top-tier cybersecurity experts.

👉Register for the Workshop here: https://forms.gle/obX1Ka6JgEgYfHgQ9