One hundred teams from across Vietnam are taking part in a biggest ever cyber-attack drill, which runs in Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City from December 18 to 21.

Scene at the opening ceremony of the drill

Co-organised by the Authority of Information Security and the Vietnam Computer Emergency Response Team (VNCERT), the drill updates public technicians on solutions to preventing and countering advanced persistent threat (APT), while equipping them with skills and knowledge to get ready for real-life attacks to important national information infrastructure.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Nguyen Khac Lich, deputy head of the VNCERT, said stimulation drills in recent years showed limitations when it comes to concerning dangerous and complex APT attacks.

This year, VNCERT, for the first time, has launched a new model where participants can practice both defence and attack skills in a selected working data. They are not allowed to destroy and shutdown the data, and to cause information leaks.  

Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Thanh Hung said he expects participating teams will continue joining hands to build a safe and trustful cyberspace.

According to the VNCERT, Vietnam has so far this year recorded nearly 400 million cyber-security-related events. There were 9,344 cyber-attacks, including 2,499 phishing, 5,018 deface and 1,764 malware attacks. 

First appearing at the end of 2010, APT attacks, in which a person or group gains unauthorised access to a network and remains undetected for an extended period, are one of the top threats to information security. 

Statistics show that more than 27 percent of the attacks targeted government institutions, followed by those hitting banking and financial institutions and telecommunication firms with a large customer database.

Vietnam has seen a number of APT attacks on big organisations, most notably an attack on Vietnam Airlines’ data in July last year.-VNA