Vietnam's postal service attacked by ransomware

Huyen Trang, an online vendor in Hanoi, said she had not been able to access the Vietnam Post application since early that morning. Thus, her customers did not receive her packages.

"I waited until noon but still could not access the application, so I had to find a different way," she said.

On certain online vendor communities in Vietnam, several people complained about not being able to create orders or use services by the Vietnam Post. Its website was also rendered inaccessible.

In an announcement made Tuesday at noon, Vietnam Post said its IT systems had been targeted by ransomware. The attack happened at around 3 a.m., directly impacting activities related to postal delivery.

"Services regarding postal finance, public administration and goods distribution are still operating normally," a company representative said.

The representative added that there were already been plans in place to respond to the incident, including cutting off connections to the system to isolate threats and protect data.

The representative cited these measures as the causes of the website and application disruptions.

"The Vietnam Post is working with authorities and its partners – top technology firms in Vietnam, to resolve the issues as soon as possible," the company said.

The Vietnam Post is only the latest target among several major firms attacked by ransomware.

Previously, hackers also attacked stock platform VnDirect, oil corporation PVOIL, and a telecommunications provider. Attackers managed to encrypt important data and demanded that victims give them money to decrypt them.

The number of ransomware attacks on Vietnamese business platforms has increased by 70% compared to the same period last year, according to a first quarter Viettel Cyber Security report.