A joint force has been formed to look into the series of hacking attacks into the systems at several major airports and two websites in Vietnam on Friday.
The probe is led by the economic security and Internet security units, known as A85 and A68, under the Ministry of Public Security, with cooperation from the Northern Airports Authority and Southern Airports Authority.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam has called for an investigation to be launched immediately after the hacking incident began on Friday afternoon.
The flight information and loudspeaker systems at airports in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang and Phu Quoc Island were compromised to display offensive messages toward Vietnam and the Philippines, as well as distorted content of the East Vietnam Sea issues.
The website of the national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines was also hacked, with hackers stealing and leaking data of some 411,000 of its VIP customers under the Lotusmiles membership.
The website was also defaced to display similar offensive contents as in the case of the flight information boards.
The hacker group 1937CM claimed responsibility for the attacks.
A crowd of passengers wait for check-in at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi
The website of the Vietnam Football Federation was also compromised by a self-proclaimed “wolf hacker”. The hacker defaced the website and installed malicious software to its system.
Affected airports had to shut down some of their check-in counters, and switched to complete procedure manually instead of using computers as Internet was disconnected for fear of further attacks.
Passengers are now advised to come to the airport earlier than usual to complete check-in procedures.
Experts from the Internet security department under the Ministry of Public Security, the Authority of Information Security and Vietnam Computer Emergency Response Team, and telcos such as FPT and Viettel, have joined hands in helping Vietnam Airlines handle the incident.
The national flag carrier confirmed in a statement later Friday that its official website was “seized control and transferred to a malicious website abroad,” with data of a number of frequent flyers made public.
The airline said its website was restored to normal, closely monitored and controlled as of 5:10 pm.
“By 6:00 pm the same day, VNA's attacked IT system and data were isolated and gradually controlled,” it said.
Passengers wait for check-in at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City
The carrier said it is deploying proactive contingency plans, working in close coordination with airport security units to tighten control of passengers at airports in order to ensure normal operation, as well as implement necessary measures to ensure customers' benefits.
As for the data of Lotusmiles membership, Vietnam Airlines said it has initially taken control of the entire data and will implement measures to ensure the best benefits for our members. “Lotusmiles members are kindly requested to change the account password immediately after the system is fixed,” it said.
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