Talking with Biz Hub, Nguyen Minh Duc, director of network security at the Bkav Internet Security Corporation, explained the method of attacks and suggested solutions for protecting the sites.

Nguyen Minh Duc, director of network security at the Bach Khoa Anti-Virus Centre, suggested Vietnamese websites be tested their resistance abilities. Photo doanhnhansaigon.vn

 Reporter: A series of online Vietnamese newspapers are trying their best to prevent DDoS attacks so that their readers find it easier to get the news. Can you tell more about this problem?

Nguyen Minh Duc: During a DDoS attack, hackers control a large number of computers to access a website at the same time, causing the network bandwidth to overload.

Solving this problem quickly or over time depends on individual computer systems. On average, a website can transfer 1GB data per one second. However, when a site attacked, this capacity can reach up to 10GB data per second, which simply overloads the system.

Viet Nam's Computer Emergency Response Teams (VNCERT) and Bkav had not received any requests for help from the newspapers so far. Even when VNCERT contacted them on July 8, saying that the centre was willing to give them a hand, they said that they had not been affected by DDoS attacks.

Not only online newspapers but also other sites in Viet Nam may experience the same problem if the number of people trying to access a site exceeds the abilities of the computers server. Because of their systems, many online newspapers, which serve huge numbers of readers, can collapse after being attacked. Therefore, I think other websites could fall very easily.

Reporter: A representative for the Hackers Viet Nam Association Online (www.hvaonline.net) said that a botnet (a network of computers infected by viruses) has been temporarily disabled. However, this will only last for a short time, so in your opinion, how can they stop these attacks?

Nguyen Minh Duc: It is very difficult to stop the attacks without support from the Government. The newspapers are resisting the attacks by upgrading their computer systems, including increasing the number of servers they use, raising their capacities and improving their websites overall.

There is another way which is more assertive. The VNCERT can search for viruses and find out where they are being directed from. However, they can only can do this when the websites that are being attacked report these incidents to the VNCERT.

South Korea has set up a centre to handle DDoS attacks on state agencies. The centre has numerous servers and a very large bandwidth infrastructure. When websites are attacked, the attacks details are transferred to the DDoS handling centre, which identifies IP addresses and the resistance of the DDoS.

I think that Vietnamese websites should have their resistance tested. In reality, some of Bkav's customers have asked the centre to check their websites. — VNS