One hundred teams from across Việt Nam are taking part in the country’s biggest ever cyber-attack drill in Hà Nội, Đà Nẵng and HCM City from Tuesday to Friday. — Photo ictnews.vn

HÀ NỘI – One hundred teams from across Việt Nam are taking part in the country’s biggest ever cyber-attack drill in Hà Nội, Đà Nẵng and HCM City from Tuesday to Friday.

Organised by the Authority of Information Security and the Vietnam Computer Emergency Response Team (VNCERT), the drill updates public technicians on solutions to prevent and counter advanced persistent threat (APT), while equipping them with skills to get ready for real attacks to national information infrastructure.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Nguyễn Khắc Lịch, deputy head of the VNCERT, said drills in recent years showed limitations when it comes to APT attacks.

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

Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyễn Thành Hưng said he expects the participating teams will continue working together to build a safe cyberspace.

According to VNCERT, Việt Nam 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, are one of the top threats to information security.

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

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