The Vietnam Computer Emergency Response Center (VNCERT) hosted the 2018 ASEAN-Japan information security drill, which took place in Hanoi, central Da Nang city and Ho Chi Minh City on May 23. 

Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Thanh Hung speaks at the event (Source: https://mic.gov.vn)

The Vietnam team attended the event with 300 representatives and technicians from over 100 member units of VNCERT, IT units from ministries, sectors and localities, and IT enterprises nationwide. 

Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Thanh Hung mentioned the fact that “Distributed Denial of Service - DoS/DdoS” attacks are growing in both number and complexity. 

Statistics of the VNCERT show that Vietnam recorded 4,035 cyber attacks this year to May 19, with 2,661 Deface incidents, 776 Malware attacks, and 608 Phishing scams. 

Therefore, drills on information security in responding to relevant issues should be regularly organised as part of effort to deal with that, he noted. 

Representatives from VNCERT said the drill involved three levels: the international coordination agency, the national coordination agency and the core units, of which the core units need the most protection because they can be attacked directly or indirectly. 

In the drill scenario, Japan first detected small DDoS attacks on the first day, and large-scale attacks took place the following day, blocking access and email of victim units. On the third day, after email services were restored, fake emails containing malwares were sent to leaders of ASEAN countries, triggering the spread of malwares to governmental agencies and more. 

During the drill, participants focused on creating coordination mechanisms, quickly and accurately operating information transfer stages in all units involved in the case of cyber attacks. 

They also exchanged reports on ongoing events, provided warning information, strategies to mitigate loss, while sharing experience in responding to attacks. 

VNCERT is a member of the Asia Pacific Computer Emergency Response Team (APCERT). It has been developing with about over 120 units and 500 technicians. The centre detected millions of IP addresses, which were infected and controlled by host computers outside Vietnam.-VNA