Vietnam Airlines website hacked, customer information leaked

At 4:00 p.m. this afternoon, the website of Vietnam Airlines was attacked and its content was changed, and information of more than 400,000 Golden Lotus members was posted.

From around 4pm this afternoon, users accessing the address https://www.vietnamairlines.com received a notification that the website had been hacked, the content of the homepage had been completely changed. The page contained provocative language and left information that the hacker group 1937cn had carried out this attack.

At the bottom of the website, there is a link to Pastebin.com, sharing three links to download an Excel file. This file weighs about 100 MB, and is a collection of over 400,000 Vietnam Airlines member customer accounts, including full names, dates of birth, and addresses. Some members also had their positions, workplaces, and phone numbers exposed... A quick check by VnExpress on 10 accounts showed that the information in there was correct.

At the same time, at Noi Bai and Tay Son Nhat airports, many passengers were shocked to see flight information screens suddenly change, incorrect information displayed at most check-in counters and spread to the airport's broadcasting system.

After the strange sound was played for about 4 minutes, airport authorities discovered it and turned off the entire sound system and screens.

The announcement screens at Tay Son Nhat airport were turned off this afternoon.

By around 5:30 p.m., the Vietnam Airlines website at the above address had returned to normal. However, the subdomain http://glp.vietnamairlines.com/ showed that the website was still hacked.

Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Nhat said that hackers only penetrated the interface of the screen displaying information about Vietnam Airlines flights at Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat airports, but did not penetrate the ticket search and booking system. The flight control and security systems of these airports are still operating normally.

The Ministry of Transport has asked the Ministry of Public Security to coordinate the investigation and clarify the cause.

In May 2015, more than 200 Vietnamese websites were attacked by hacker groups from China, leaving behind provocative information, most of which came from the 1937cn group. According to security experts, the 1937cn.net website was created with the purpose of provoking attacks on Vietnamese websites.

According to a representative of Noi Bai airport, the incident is being investigated and clarified by the airport, Vietnam Airlines and the Ministry of Public Security.

Currently, Vietnam Airlines has not given an official response to this issue.

According to VNE