VietNamNet Bridge – Six online newspapers could not be accessed by readers on October 13 (Vietnamese Entrepreneurs Day), resulting in a loss of VND2.5 billion a day for VC Corporation, the service provider host that runs the websites.

The news websites dddn.com.vn, giadinh.net, nld.com.vn and dantri.com.vn, as well as  information websites kenh14.vn and soha.vn, were affected.

Nguyen The Tan, deputy CEO of VC Corp, told the media on the same day that readers could not access the websites because of errors with the company’s data center.

Tan admitted that the problem was “really complicated” and it would take a lot of time to fix.

At first, VC Corp expected to solve the problem prior to 6 pm on October 13. However, the websites were not accessible until the morning of October 14. However, errors on the websites continued and a technical solution provider had to delay the deadline to 6 pm on October 14.

VC Corporation still does not know the cause of the problem, but Tan said the possibility of being hacked would be considered.

There was no sign of a DDoS attack, he said.

Nguyen Huy Dung, deputy head of the Ministry of Information and Communication’s Information Safety Agency, said on Infonet on October 14 that the agency was keeping a close watch over it.

The trouble raised worries about internet security systems of online newspapers which have been relying on a technical base managed by one company.

Experts have suggested that online newspapers should not rely on a technical infrastructure system, but should instead have contingency plans.

An internet security expert said that many online newspapers and information websites use maintenance services provided by information technology (IT) firms.

However, handing over these responsibilities was too risky.

“In case of VC Corp, for example, once the company’s data center broke down, its clients, including newspapers, had troubles,” he said.

He said that it would be better for online newspapers to assign their IT workers to supervise cooperation with IT firms.

The newspapers should ask IT firms to hand over the highest-level access rights to the host system and the newspapers’ databases. And in all cases, hiring at least two IT firms is strongly recommended.

Of the two firms, the first would take main responsibility for the operation of the newspapers, while the second would be in charge of the replication system.

The replication system should be located on the newspapers’ server system, if the newspapers have qualified IT staff, or the second IT firm’s host if staff are not capable of handling it. This would allow the newspapers to maintain normal operations in case the main system breaks down.