On October 11, 2025, headlines across Vietnam and beyond buzzed with news of two major digital events: a massive data breach affecting Qantas airline customers and the intensifying crackdown on social media misuse, highlighted by the high-profile case of Vietnamese livestream entrepreneur Hoang Huong. Together, these stories paint a vivid picture of the challenges and transformations shaping the digital landscape in Southeast Asia and worldwide.
Let’s start with the Qantas breach. According to reports published on October 11, 2025, by various outlets including Kinh tế và pháp luật, approximately five million customers of Qantas, Australia’s flagship airline, found their personal records exposed in a sweeping cyberattack. Qantas was not alone—more than 40 companies worldwide were swept up in the breach, which is believed to be linked to the compromise of a staggering one billion customer records globally. The incident, which came to light after occurring around 7 PM on October 10 at Km 507 of the Vung Ang - Ham Nghi expressway in Toan Luu commune, Ha Tinh province, underscores the growing vulnerability of personal information in an increasingly digitized world.
The scale of the Qantas leak is jaw-dropping. Five million individuals—imagine the entire population of a small country—now face the risk of identity theft, scams, and other forms of cybercrime. For Qantas, a company that has long prided itself on safety and reliability, the breach is a stark reminder that, in the digital age, security isn’t just about well-maintained aircraft or on-time departures. It’s about defending the digital identities of customers, too.
This breach is part of a much broader trend. Cyberattacks targeting customer data have been on the rise for years, with hackers seeking out the weakest links in corporate defenses. The fact that over 40 companies were affected in this single incident points to the sophistication and scale of modern cybercrime operations. As more businesses migrate their operations online and collect vast troves of personal data, the stakes only get higher.
But the Qantas breach was not the only digital drama making headlines in Vietnam this week. On the same day, news broke of government action against Hoang Huong, a famous Vietnamese entrepreneur known as the “queen of livestream” for her dynamic online sales tactics. Born in 1987 in Phu Tho, Hoang Huong built a sprawling digital empire, with fanpages like “Hoang Huong” and “Gia dinh Hoang Huong” amassing over 1.3 million followers and generating estimated monthly revenues in the tens of billions of Vietnamese dong. That’s no small feat in the world of online commerce.
However, on October 11, 2025, authorities announced that Hoang Huong’s social media accounts would be scrutinized and potentially blocked following her indictment for serious violations of accounting regulations. The move came after the police formally charged her with “violating accounting rules causing serious consequences,” a charge that has sent ripples through Vietnam’s burgeoning e-commerce and influencer sectors.
At a quarterly press conference held on October 10, Le Quang Tu Do, Head of the Department of Broadcasting, Television and Electronic Information under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, clarified the government’s stance. “The handling of social media channels and pages must be based on specific violations,” he stated. “If those channels are used as tools to violate the law, they will be dealt with. In Hoang Huong’s case, she is being prosecuted for accounting violations, not for false advertising. The case is still under investigation.”
This measured approach reflects a broader policy shift in Vietnam’s handling of digital misconduct. The Department, under Le Quang Tu Do’s leadership, has been ramping up efforts to police online content, especially in the wake of rising concerns about misinformation, defamation, and even anti-government activities on social media. In the third quarter of 2025 alone, the Department blocked or removed 10,713 anti-Party and State posts on Facebook (achieving a 96% removal rate), 705 violating videos on YouTube (92%), and 798 pieces of offending content on TikTok (97%).
These actions are not ad hoc. Since 2017, the Department has run a systematic program to monitor and purge false or defamatory content from social platforms, initially under Decree 72/2013 and now updated to Decree 147/2024. The process combines human oversight with technical tools, including artificial intelligence, to scan the digital space and send takedown requests to cross-border platforms—demands that, according to officials, must be fulfilled within 24 hours. “We do these tasks according to Decree 72 of 2013, now Decree 147 of 2024. The approach is to use both people and technical tools to scan the online space, sending requests to cross-border platforms to block or remove content within 24 hours,” Le Quang Tu Do explained at the press conference.
From September 2025, these efforts have only intensified. The Department has placed a special emphasis on cleaning up the online environment, with a focus on rooting out fake news, offensive material, and content that could destabilize society. The rise of AI-generated misinformation and the proliferation of social media accounts masquerading as legitimate news outlets have made the task more urgent—and more complicated. “Many TikTok and YouTube channels now claim to be news pages, using AI to create misleading or even regime-opposing content. In the past, it was difficult to handle these pages, but after working with cross-border platforms, blocking and removal has become easier,” Le Quang Tu Do warned.
The Hoang Huong case, then, is more than just the story of a single influencer’s legal troubles. It’s emblematic of a broader reckoning with the power—and perils—of social media in Vietnam. As the government seeks to foster a “healthy media environment,” it’s walking a tightrope: cracking down on illegal or harmful content while balancing the rights of millions of digital entrepreneurs and ordinary users.
Meanwhile, the Qantas data breach serves as a sobering counterpoint, reminding everyone that the digital world’s risks are not confined to misinformation or regulatory violations. For the millions whose personal data was exposed, the consequences could be deeply personal and long-lasting.
As Vietnam and the world grapple with these twin challenges—protecting digital privacy and ensuring responsible online behavior—the stakes have never been higher. Whether it’s safeguarding airline passengers’ data or holding social media empires accountable, the digital frontier is now a battleground for trust, security, and truth. The coming months will reveal just how well governments, companies, and citizens can rise to the occasion.