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A large-scale investigation revealed the scale of the espionage campaign against officials and journalists.
Vietnamese agents attempted to install spyware on the phones of members of the US Congress, political experts and journalists. Among the targets were two influential figures in the Capitol – Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul and Senator Chris Murphy. The attack took place during negotiations between Vietnamese and American diplomats on an agreement aimed at countering China's growing influence in the region.
The attack also targeted American Asia experts and CNN reporters, including Jim Sciutto, chief national security analyst, and two correspondents working in Asia.
Amnesty International revealed the scale of the campaign and shared its findings with The Washington Post and 14 international media outlets, whose investigation was coordinated by the European Consortium of Journalists.
According to Amnesty International, the Vietnamese government acquired Predator through several intermediaries from Intellexa. It is worth noting that the distribution of Predator is carried out through a network of intermediaries, which includes the European company Intellexa and its associated company Cytrox, both on the "Entity List" of the US Department of Commerce. This means that US companies now need to obtain a license to do business with these firms.
The investigation, called "Predator Files," revealed details of the inner workings of Intellexa, a European alliance of surveillance tool vendors that sold powerful spyware to governments around the world. According to the documents, in 2020, Vietnam signed a deal for the acquisition of "infection solutions" with a company from the Intellexa alliance for 5.6 million euros.
Vietnamese agents used the social network X to post links leading to the installation of Predator through the anonymous account @Joseph_Gordon16. The goal was to attract politicians and others to websites that hosted spyware. Most of the tweets were deleted in one or two days to avoid detection. And the account disappeared from the social network in recent weeks after journalists started asking questions to the leaders of Cytrox and Intellexa.
According to Amnesty International, the new infection attempts followed lengthy negotiations and technology deliveries between Vietnamese agencies and subsidiaries of the spyware makers.
The US Administration has expressed serious concern about the targeting of members of Congress. However, none of the attackers reported that their devices were infected. One of the officials, who requested anonymity, said that 50 American politicians abroad were targeted by commercial spyware. The recent campaign justifies the decision to add Cytrox and Intellexa to the" Entity List " along with NSO Group, which was added to the list back in 2021.
Representatives of social network X and the Vietnamese government did not comment on the campaign. The State Department did not respond to a question about whether it had raised the issue of spyware with the Vietnamese government, but said it would schedule a discussion with the U.S. government.
Predator spyware, like its competitor Pegasus, is a powerful and difficult-to-detect program that can activate the microphones and cameras of iOS and Android devices, extract all files and read private messages, even if they are encrypted using End-to-End encryption (E2EE).
Vietnamese agents attempted to install spyware on the phones of members of the US Congress, political experts and journalists. Among the targets were two influential figures in the Capitol – Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul and Senator Chris Murphy. The attack took place during negotiations between Vietnamese and American diplomats on an agreement aimed at countering China's growing influence in the region.
The attack also targeted American Asia experts and CNN reporters, including Jim Sciutto, chief national security analyst, and two correspondents working in Asia.
Amnesty International revealed the scale of the campaign and shared its findings with The Washington Post and 14 international media outlets, whose investigation was coordinated by the European Consortium of Journalists.
According to Amnesty International, the Vietnamese government acquired Predator through several intermediaries from Intellexa. It is worth noting that the distribution of Predator is carried out through a network of intermediaries, which includes the European company Intellexa and its associated company Cytrox, both on the "Entity List" of the US Department of Commerce. This means that US companies now need to obtain a license to do business with these firms.
The investigation, called "Predator Files," revealed details of the inner workings of Intellexa, a European alliance of surveillance tool vendors that sold powerful spyware to governments around the world. According to the documents, in 2020, Vietnam signed a deal for the acquisition of "infection solutions" with a company from the Intellexa alliance for 5.6 million euros.
Vietnamese agents used the social network X to post links leading to the installation of Predator through the anonymous account @Joseph_Gordon16. The goal was to attract politicians and others to websites that hosted spyware. Most of the tweets were deleted in one or two days to avoid detection. And the account disappeared from the social network in recent weeks after journalists started asking questions to the leaders of Cytrox and Intellexa.
According to Amnesty International, the new infection attempts followed lengthy negotiations and technology deliveries between Vietnamese agencies and subsidiaries of the spyware makers.
The US Administration has expressed serious concern about the targeting of members of Congress. However, none of the attackers reported that their devices were infected. One of the officials, who requested anonymity, said that 50 American politicians abroad were targeted by commercial spyware. The recent campaign justifies the decision to add Cytrox and Intellexa to the" Entity List " along with NSO Group, which was added to the list back in 2021.
Representatives of social network X and the Vietnamese government did not comment on the campaign. The State Department did not respond to a question about whether it had raised the issue of spyware with the Vietnamese government, but said it would schedule a discussion with the U.S. government.
Predator spyware, like its competitor Pegasus, is a powerful and difficult-to-detect program that can activate the microphones and cameras of iOS and Android devices, extract all files and read private messages, even if they are encrypted using End-to-End encryption (E2EE).
