International drill on cyber security held in Vietnam

The exercise is an annual event organised by information technology agencies, especially computer emergency response teams (CERT) from many countries and territories worldwide.

The event drew the participation of 28 members of the Asia Pacific Computer Emergency Response Team (APCERT) and some guests from the Organisation of Islamic Conference – Computer Emergency Response Team (OIC-CERT).

Photo for illustration: Vietnam+

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Thanh Hung said that cyber security is a hot issue that has caught concerns worldwide.

Such cyber-attack like Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), an attempt to make online services unavailable by overwhelming it with traffic from multiple sources, has been increasing, Hung said, highlighting that the attack caused irreversible damage to state agencies and enterprises as well as had critical impacts on socio-economy, defence, security and people’s benefits.

This year’s exercise aims to enhance capacity for cyber security officers in analysing, inspecting, and coordinating to tackle DDoS attacks, making contributions to ensuring cyber security in Vietnam, he stressed.

The drill is not only an opportunity for technicians to practice activities responding to computer incidences but also an event to raise public awareness of information safety in offices, enterprises and community.

Team Vietnam attended the event with 200 representatives and technicians from over 100 units of the Vietnam Computer Emergency Response Teams (VNCERT), groups, commercial banks, telecommunication enterprises, universities and academies nationwide.

On the occasion, Vietnam also held a drill in the north, central and south.

VNCERT is a member of the APCERT. It has been developing with 124 units and 500 technicians. The centre detected millions of IP addresses which were infected and controlled by host computers outside Vietnam. It also found over 18,000 infected websites that had spread malware on the Internet, including 88 state agency websites.