Recently, Vietnam announced
the establishment of a Cyber Command to protect military and defence
information systems, as well as the nation’s important information/ data.
The Cyber Command is a unit of the Ministry of National Defence
and will help the ministry implement the State management function of
safeguarding the national sovereignty in cyberspace and information technology.
According to a press release from the Ministry, strong development
of technology and the Internet, and the rise of the fourth industrial revolution
means that cyberspace is becoming a new “territory” playing a key role in the
country’s socio-economic development, defence, security and external relations.
And in modern warfare the Government considers cyberspace to be as important an
arena as air, ground or sea.
The Cyber Command will advise the Party and the State
leadership on direction and operation of cyber warfare to achieve the best
possible results. It will be engaged in research and forecasting and in
proposing mechanisms, policies and organisational plans for cyberspace
operations.
The Cyber Command is expected to study and apply advanced
science technology and military tactics in cyber combat, and learn from the
world’s latest and modern achievements on information technology and hi-tech
weapons.
It will also train competent personnel who can deal with modern
cyberthreats. At the same time, the Cyber Command will step up international cooperation
in the area.
Speaking at a ceremony to announce the establishment of the Command,
the Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, asked the Cyber Command to become a loyal,
disciplinary, intelligent, and clear-headed force which is strong enough to
protect the national sovereignty in cyberspace. The Government leader requested
the Cyber Command to coordinate closely with relevant units, such as such as
the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Information and
Communications.
In December, Vietnam revealed
that it has developed a new, 10,000-strong military cyber warfare unit to
counter “wrong” views on the Internet. The cyber unit, named Force 47, is
already in operation in several sectors, Tuoi Tre newspaper quoted
Lieutenant General Nguyen Trong Nghia, deputy head of the military’s political
department, as saying at a conference of the Central Propaganda Department on
Monday in Ho Chi Minh City.
According to a news
report in state media outlet, Việt Nam News, in 2016, Vietnam detected
135,190 cyberattacks, three times more than in 2015. The country’s parliament is
debating
a new law on cybersecurity, which seeks to address inadequacies in the existing
12-year-old legislation. Provisions
in the draft law require suppliers of telecoms services and internet
services to establish mechanisms to verify personal information of users when
they create an account to ensure confidential authentication of the
information. The suppliers would also have to provide the information to cyber
security agencies. The draft law also requires the draft law requires foreign
suppliers of telecom services and internet services to obtain operation
licences, establish a representative agency in Vietnam, and locate the server
that manages Vietnamese users’ data in the territory of Vietnam.
