On June 24, the People's Committee of Quang Nam province sent an official dispatch to the provincial departments, branches, associations, unions and the People's Committees of districts, towns and cities warning about the APT group "Mustang Panda" carrying out a cyber attack campaign in Vietnam.

According to the People's Committee of Quang Nam province, in the process of monitoring information security in cyberspace, the National Cyber Security Monitoring Center (NCSC) under the Department of Information Security, Ministry of Information and Communications discovered and recorded information related to the cyber attack campaign targeting Vietnam carried out by the APT attack group "Mustang Panda".

This attack campaign of Mustang Panda group used lures revolving around theeducation and tax sectors, applying multiple approaches, taking advantage of tools such as "forfiles.exe" to execute malicious files stored on the C&C server.

In addition, this group also uses PowerShell, VBScript and batch files in the attack campaign. The group targets government organizations, non-profit organizations, educational organizations, etc.

In order to ensure information security and safety for information systems of agencies and units in the area, the Chairman of the People's Committee of Quang Nam province requested that leaders of agencies and units urgently check and review information systems in use that may be affected by the above information security vulnerability.

At the same time, actively monitor information related to security vulnerabilities and upgrade to the latest version to avoid the risk of being attacked.

Strengthen monitoring and prepare response plans when detecting signs of exploitation and cyber attacks; regularly monitor warning channels of authorities and large information security organizations to promptly detect cyber attack risks.

Quang Nam Provincial People's Committee also assigned the Department of Information and Communications to preside over and coordinate with the provincial police and functional units under the Ministry of Information and Communications to develop solutions to ensure information security and safety to promptly guide departments, branches, sectors and localities to implement.

Receive, guide and support agencies and units managing information systems in the area to handle risks and incidents of information security and safety caused by the APT attack group "Mustang Panda"; strengthen inspection, supervision and guidance for agencies, organizations and enterprises in the province to effectively ensure information security and safety.