The Viet Nam Computer Emergency Response Centre (VNCERT) hosted the 2018 ASEAN-Japan Information Security Drill in Ha Noi, central Da Nang and HCM City on Wednesday.

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

At the event, deputy minister of information and communications Nguyen Thanh Hung said: “Distributed Denial of Service,or DoS/DDoS” attacks were growing in both number and complexity.

According to statistics of VNCERT, Viet Nam recorded 4,035 cyber attacks this year up to May 19, with 2,661 defaming incidents, 776 malware attacks and 608 phishing scams. Therefore, drills on information security in response to relevant issues should be regularly organised, Hung said.

Representatives of VNCERT said the drill involved three levels: international coordination agency, national coordination agency and core units, which needed the most protection as they could be attacked directly or indirectly. In the drill scenario, Japan first detected small DDoS attacks on the first day. Large-scale cyber 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 government agencies and more.

During the drill, participants focused on creating co-ordination mechanisms, quickly and accurately enabling information transfer among all units that were victims of the attacks. They also exchanged reports on ongoing events, provided warnings and offered strategies to mitigate the loss while sharing their experiences in responding to cyber attacks.

VNCERT is a member of the Asia Pacific Computer Emergency Response Team with over 120 units and 500 technicians. It has detected millions of IP addresses infected and controlled by host computers outside Viet Nam. — VNS