The Vietnam Cyberspace Emergency Response Center - VNCERT/CC, the Department of Information Security (Ministry of Information and Communications) has just warned about a sophisticated cyber attack campaign, with the main target being digital economic experts, especially those doing digital marketing, using advertising platforms such as Meta Ads.

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According to VNCERT/CC, the Cyble Research and Intelligence Laboratory - CRIL has warned of a sophisticated cyber attack campaign carried out by a hacker group, with the main target being digital marketers. Illustration photo: Internet

According to the analysis, the attack campaign started with the distribution of phishing emails containing fake LNK files disguised as work-related PDF documents.

When the user opens the fake file, a chain of commands is triggered to download and execute malicious files from external storage sources such as Dropbox.

In addition, the malware is encrypted with multiple layers and uses advanced detection avoidance techniques to bypass security systems.

In the final stage of the attack, Quasar RAT malware is deployed, allowing the attacker to take control of the infected system, thereby accessing and stealing important data; monitoring the victim's activities; and installing other malware.

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Personnel of units and organizations need to be trained to raise awareness of information security to be able to prevent malicious files from being spread via email. Illustration photo: BN

To ensure system security, in addition to regularly monitoring the system and checking network traffic to detect connections of unknown origin, VNCERT/CC recommends that users and administrators always update the latest patches for the system and security software.

In particular, training and raising information security awareness for employees remains an important solution. “Organizations need to ensure that employees, especially those working in the field of digital marketing, are knowledgeable about phishing techniques as well as how to avoid malicious email attachments,” VNCERT/CC experts emphasized.

Vietnam participates in international exercise on responding to cyber attacks using AI. The ACID 2024 international exercise with the theme 'Proactively responding to the increase in cyber attacks using AI', has the participation of technical staff from 10 ASEAN countries and 5 dialogue countries.