Security home cameras

The malware infection rate in Viet Nam has decreased but still remained high compared to other countries in the world. — Photo quantrimang.com

The campaign aims to reduce the malicious code infection rate by 50 per cent. It also aims to cut the number of Vietnamese IP addresses in 10 popular botnets – a collection of internet-connected devices infected by malware that allow hackers to control them – in half.

It would also take Việt Nam out of reports on malware infection rates.

The National Digital Transformation Programme, approved by Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc in early June 2020, says ensuring network safety and security is key to digital transformation. All IT equipment, products, software, information systems and investment projects have mandatory components on network safety and security.

The ministry has clarified cyber safety and security a prerequisite for e-government development and digital transformation.

However, according to security firms, malware infection in Việt Nam has decreased but still remained high compared to other countries. Statistics showed that Việt Nam has about 16 million IPv4 addresses, of which about three million IP addresses are regularly blacklisted by many international organisations, while two million IP addresses are regularly found in botnets.

The campaign will allow people to use malware prevention software for free via https://khonggianmang.vn.

A representative from the ministry’s Department of Information Security said the campaign is for businesses and home network systems and equipment. The group accounts for the majority of the IP addresses.

The campaign would also contribute to improving the country’s reliability in e-transactions, thus promoting socio-economic development and contribute to ensuring national defence and security.

The department would co-operate with VNPT, Viettel, CMC, FPT, BKAV and Kaspersky to implement the campaign.

The campaign would assess 10 major botnets that need to be treated with priority, build and deploy tools on a large scale, whereby users get free downloads to inspect and remove malicious code from their computers.

“After the campaign, we will evaluate results and plan to implement future campaigns,” the department said.

The campaign has been implemented in all provinces and cities from the local to the central level, through specialised IT units of ministries, branches and localities, State groups and corporations, commercial banks and financial institutions.

In addition, it has also received support from organisations, corporations and major security firms such as Kaspersky, Group-IB, FireEye, F-Secure and ESET.

The campaign has been implemented gradually. The ministry hopes it will achieve positive results, contributing to clean malware from Việt Nam’s cyberspace. This will help ensure safety for transactions of agencies and enterprises, as Việt Nam is accelerating digital transformation towards the development of digital government, digital economy and digital society, it added. — VNS

In August this year, the Department of Information Security recorded 517 cyber attacks on information systems in Việt Nam (199 phishing cases, 160 deface attacks and 158 malware attacks), falling 0.77 per cent over the previous month. The number of Vietnamese IP addresses in botnet networks is over 2 million, a decrease of 0.03 per cent compared to July. The number of recorded cyber attacks, warnings and the number of botnet IP addresses showed a slight decrease in the last three months.

The decrease was due to the department continuing to strengthen the recording, warnings and instructions on information security.

However, cyber attackers have still taken advantage of concerns about the pandemic to increase the spread of malicious code. The number of IP botnets compared to the same period last year was still at a high level.

To ensure network security, the department would strengthen monitoring and active scanning on Viet Nam’s cyberspace. VNS

It had taken just 30 minutes for Cong, deputy head of the laboratory and diagnostic imaging department at the Binh Thanh District medical center, to finish preparing swabbing kits, protective clothing and necessary documents.

It was still dark as the 36-year-old Cong, along with four colleagues, began conducting random Covid-19 tests in areas around the Mien Dong (Eastern Region) Bus Station in Saigon for the 12th day.

From 5 a.m. to 7 a.m., they worked with local medics to take 100 samples of people from Hanoi and the provinces of Gia Lai, Kon Tum and Dak Lak in the Central Highlands.

Then the group quickly returned to their office to start other work.

Medics take random swab samples at the Mien Dong Bus Station every morning, February 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Thu Anh.

One of them took the samples to the Thu Duc Hospital for carrying out RT-PCR tests. Some received people coming from Covid-19 hotspots to check their medical declarations and take their swab samples. Others traveled to two quarantine facilities in Wards 21 and 28 to take swab samples of those under centralized quarantine.

After a long day, at around 6 p.m., they started traveling with medics in the district to take random swab samples at local restaurants. It was midnight when the medics returned to their office yet again.

The team members have been traveling from place to place and working around the clock for a month, Cong said they initially collected test samples at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport; and after an infection chain was found, they moved on to locked down neighborhoods and worked with the residents there.

In collecting samples at bus stations, they had to work from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m., said Ho Minh Hoang, head of the medical center in Binh Thanh District’s Ward 26. This means the team members had to be up at 3 a.m. to prepare, which was exhausting.

Hoang and Cong later suggested that the HCMC Center for Disease Control (CDC) and bus stations allow them to start their mission at 5 a.m.

“We have never gotten enough sleep,” said Le Thanh Dat, 30, with dark circles under his eyes. He said that due to the massive amount of work, all his teammates worked “with 200 percent of our energy,” so less than five hours of sleep per day had become normal.

To keep their families safe and reduce travel time, the medics have decided to stay at their office and sleep on the floors.

“We fall asleep right after we lie down,” Cong said. Worrying they would not hear the alarm in the early morning, they set up several loud alarms.

During the day, even grabbing a few minutes of sleep was like getting a treasure. A stool, a table, chairs in bus stations, all these became their “beds.”

Medics of Binh Thanh District sleep whenever they can. Photo courtesy of Le Thanh Dat.

After taking swab samples, the group also tracked people who’d come into close contact with Covid-19 patients in town during the Lunar New Year holiday. On February 7, three days before the week-long holiday kicked off, Binh Thanh District confirmed five new Covid-19 cases, giving the medics “unprecedentedly exhausting days.”

The obstinate

Truong Sy Phu, 45, biologist at Ward 25, told VnExpress that he is not afraid of having his schedule changed or to stay away from his family. The thing that concerned him the most was that many people did not willingly start their quarantine period after coming into contact with Covid-19 patients.

On the night of February 8, Phu received a list of locals who had come into close contact with Covid-19 patients and called them immediately, telling them to stay at home and not to meet anyone.

But one man rejected Phu’s calls. After receiving text messages from the biologist, he opened his door and talked to Phu from the second floor, saying he wanted to stay at home until the holiday is over. The conversation turned sour as Phu tried to convince the man to enter a quarantine facility.

“I am sad when people get mad at me in the middle of the night. I also have sympathy for them, I know they are worried, but I cannot step back or break the regulations,” Phu maintained.

Phu (R) talks with a man asking for a certificate confirming he does not hail from a Covid-19 hotspot. Photo by VnExpress/Thu Anh.

Around three kilometers from Ward 25, in Ward 22, a three-member family from Hai Duong’s Thanh Mien District refused to make health declarations.

They had stayed inside for days and refused to be quarantined before local police arrived at their place and warned them against breaking the decreed protocol.

Since January 28, when community transmission returned to Vietnam after almost two months, the city has detected 36 cases in eight districts. Of these, 35 are linked to the outbreak at the Tan Son Nhat airport and the other Hai Duong, the northern province that is currently the country’s Covid-19 epicenter.

HCMC suspended all non-essential services, shut down bars, karaoke parlors, cinemas, discotheques, and banned religious events on February 9 after 31 Covid cases were diagnosed.

The city has found no new cases in the last 16 days. But the medics still work around the clock, facing infection risks.

Do Van Hien, 44, head of the Ward 22 medical center, has had an unforgettable month battling the virus. His phone number has been a hotline receiving information and answering questions related to the pandemic. He also meets those who’ve come into close contact with patients, checks their travel history and takes them to quarantine facilities.

He said: “During the pandemic, we are needed the most. Medics like us, even if we are tired, have to work hard and cannot afford to fall sick.”

Long jumper Nguyen Tien Trong sets up a new record of 7.98m at the National Athletics Championships in 2019 in HCM City. Photo courtesy of Nguyễn Tiến Trọng

“It is two centimetres.

“Just only two centimetres.

“I will make two centimetres this jump.”

Nguyễn Tiến Trọng thinks about this tiny distance every day in training.

If the long jumper can add the small distance to his personal best, he will become the first Vietnamese athlete to jump 8m and prove he belongs on the world stage.

National record holder

Born in 1997 in Cẩm Giàng District, Hải Dương Province, Trọng was taller and bigger than any of his friends at school.

He was chosen to take part in the provincial track-and-field competitions where he caught the eyes of the Military team’s scouts. He became an athlete when he was 13.

“I am the only one in the family as well as the district pursuing sport. So I think it is a fate that I am ‘engaged’ with athletics,” Trọng told Việt Nam News.

“My height was an advantage when I participated in different school events. I was offered to join basketball and martial arts clubs but athletics is my true love.

“I was only six when I watched the Việt Nam 22nd SEA Games on TV. I had no idea what ‘glory’ meant at that time but was strongly impressed with the way the track-and-field winners were honoured. They received big claps and huge encouragement after winning. It obsessed me. It was the reason why I agreed to join the Military team when invited immediately,” he recalled.

“Coaches had to persuade my parents a lot to let me go, saying that I had potential if I was trained professionally. They seemed okay with some doubts but now they have become my biggest supporters,” he said.

After nearly nine years of training, Trọng has proved his talent.

The man, who was born in the Year of the Buffalo, dominated national underage tournaments and set a record of 7.71m in the long jump before conquering the senior championships since 2016.

He has collected titles from international competitions including open events in Thailand and HCM City in 2019.

Among medals, his most memorable one is the gold at the fifth Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in 2017 in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

“Athletes from 44 countries came for titles. As a freshman in international events, I thought I would have no chance for the top three because it was Asia and all the jumpers were strong.

“Competing with no pressure, my leaps after three attempts were better than everyone including title favourites Chan Ming Tai (Hong Kong) and Amila Wijayalath Pedige (Sri Lanka). After the last jump, I was named the winner. It was a great feeling that I still shake when I think about,” he said.

At the 2019 national championship, Trọng confirmed his reign of the national men’s long jump pit with a leap of 7.98m, a new Vietnamese record.

“He is on the cusp of the eight-metre club that not too many athletes can do in the world. His jump is history, challenging the next generation,” said Dương Đức Thủy, head of the Athletics Department of the National Sports Administration.

Thủy was happy with Trọng’s result but reminded him: “You still owe me 2cm. Do what you have to do”.

“It is a little pressure for me,” said Trọng who promised to jump 8m to Thủy during an event in 2018. “It is not an easy tiny gap but I feel I can do better. I consider it a target to reach.”

SEA Games in sight

Long jumper Nguyễn Tiến Trọng competes to defend his title at theNational Athletics Championships in 2020in Hà Nội. Photo toquoc.vn

Trọng was expected to complete his target at the 2020 championship in Hà Nội last November.

However, he could only defend his crown with a humble jump of 7.58m.

“I also believed that I could do it. But a leg injury occurred just 10 days ahead of the tournament that prevented me from jumping my best,” he said.

“I have to try harder this year,” said Trọng referring to local tournaments as well as the 31st SEA Games in winter in Hà Nội.

It will be the third Games of the young lieutenant who has recorded poor results in previous tournaments despite being seeded.

At the 2017 event, he finished fifth and two years later he also could not join the top three despite just setting a national record.

“I was inexperienced at the first Games while I was not at my peak in the second one after competing in an international tournament for soldiers,” he explained.

Trọng is one of the athletes tipped to win gold for Việt Nam at the coming Games on home turf as his current results are similar to the top three of the Manila event two years ago.

“My coaches and I are working hard to improve and sustain my ability at a high level. The eight-metre distance is the first step and then I have to do better so that I could set my sights on continental events,” he said.

“I do not set a specific target which will make me tired and nervous but I do not want the gold medal to leave Việt Nam this year,” he said.

“I am trying hard every day to be the second Vietnamese male long jump gold medalist in history.”

Việt Nam have won only one SEA Games gold medal in men’s long jump to date. The first went to Bùi Văn Đông who triumphed in 2017. VNS