Vietnam Prime Minister Approves Data Center Funded by S. Korea ODA

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved a list of the Government Internet Data Center (GIDC) project funded by South Korea’s official development assistance (ODA). The Ministry of Information and Communication is asked to conduct the project, the government said on its website. The project which was launched in Aug 2009 under the support of South Korea Ministry of Public Administration and Security (MOPAS). GIDC is expected to promote administration reform, network security and better providing of public services, said deputy ministry of MOPAS Kang Byung Kyu. Vietnam is warned of data insecurity as numerous network attacks have been reported for the past years. The mass attacks have been rising recently with targeted websites are under the management by the government and Vietnam’s top-hit sites including VietNamNet.  VietNamNet has experienced a serious DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack earlier this month. Between November 2010 and January 2011, the website was attacked six times with suspicions fell into hidden powerful forces both in Vietnam and abroad after the website posted articles relating to forestry land lease projects by Hong Kong-based firm InnovGreen and to straightforward interpellations by famous congressmen which attracted strong supports by local intellectuals. Some other unofficial news sources attributed the attacks to internal struggles, however, no evidence was found then.  Repeated attacks to VietNamNet was made when the site was under the management of editor-in-chief Nguyen Anh Tuan, a person was called daring to raise voice on speech freedom in the country where all local media outlets are under the state’s control. (Chinhphu Sept 29)