Around 200 Vietnamese websites, 10 percent of which are managed by government agencies, have been attacked over the past 10 days, an Internet security agency’s representative has told Thanh Nien.

 

The representative, who wished to stay unnamed, said the hacks mainly changed the sites’ interfaces, adding that the number of attacks are likely to increase within the next few days.

 

One of the most suffered targets, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s portal, has seen about 20 of its websites hacked.

 

A source from the ministry’s network security supporter said that they have identified that the Internet protocols (IP) of computers attacking the portal were from China.

 

Meanwhile, Nguyen Minh Duc, director of Hanoi-based Bach Khoa Internetwork Security Company (BKIS)’s Internet Security Department, also confirmed that hundreds of Vietnamese websites have been attacked during the past week without clear reasons.

 

Hackers changed the attacked sites’ homepage interface and left messages in Chinese or English together with the images of the Chinese flag, according to Duc, adding that their attack methods weren’t special and seemed spontaneous.

 

The attacked websites didn’t have high security, the expert said.

 

He suggested Vietnamese websites back up data and re-check their security to avoid future attacks.