Foreigners enter software contest. A contest to hunt for software bugs announced by American software testing LogiGear Corporation has so far attracted 270 participants from around the world. It offers tickets each worth US$450 to five winners for the Viet Nam International Software Testing and Automation Conference (VistaCon 2010) to be held in HCM City next month.

Telecom service providers advertised the third-generation mobile network as the “river of broadband Internet” but after a short time, Vietnamese customers are disillusioned with 3G services.

In the afternoon of August 9, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and government’s delegations serveyed Thi Vai river. Looking at the progress of seaport construction along Thi Vai River, the PM said: “This is the key task of Ba Ria- Vung Tau province, and local authorities to focus on building transport infrastructure, so that Ba Ria- Vung Tau is to become a seap seaport transshipment centre for the region in the next five years”.

Patrick McGovern, chairman of International Data Group, which has provided communications and technology products and services for 120 million customers in 95 countries, paid an annual visit to Viet Nam to attend an IT exhibition. Viet Nam News reporter Vu Hoa talked with him about the group's plans.

Demand for mobile phone and Internet use among young people creates myriad opportunities for telecommunications enterprises now and into the future.

Việt Nam and Malaysia have agreed to step up exchanges of information, management expertise and cooperate to train up human resources in the information and communications sector.

The agreement was reached at a meeting between Việt Nam’s Minister of Information and Communications Lê Doãn Hợp and Malaysian Deputy Minister of Information, Communications and Culture Soseph Salang, in Kuala Lumpur on July 15.

The out-of-cycle Adobe Reader and Acrobat patch released on Tuesday has failed to remedy an issue that could allow an attacker to run malicious code, according to a Vietnamese security company.
However, according to Bach Khoa Internetwork Security centre (Bkis), the update has failed to fully remedy the issue, which Vietnamese antivirus provider said is being used by viruses in attacks.

Bridge - The University of Natural Science’s youngest PhD holder, 27-year-old Nguyen Huy Tuan, received an “Excellent Researcher” certificate of merit on June 17.

Government to invest $241 mil in student accommodation

The university, which operates under Ho Chi Minh City’s Vietnam National University system, granted the certificate to the student in the Math-IT Faculty after Tuan published two research papers in international magazines recently.

His achievements and good study records helped move straight from his bachelor’s degree to a PhD program without ever studying for a master’s degree.

Bridge – The Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC) has released initial results about its inspection of three mobile operators’ management of pre-paid subscribers, which was carried out in April 2010.
During the inspection, the ministry examined 26,093 bureaus and 143,020 agents of three minor cell phone networks - Gtel, S-Fone and EVN Telecom. Inspectors collected 1.1 billion dong (US$58,000) of fines and 4980 SIM cards which were already registered, though they had not been sold yet.

Minister of Information and Communications (MoIC) Le Doan Hop on May 19 launched go.vn, the social-education-entertainment network for Vietnamese at www.goonline.vn.
Minister Hop expected that Go.vn will become a general university of Vietnamese and the common house for the people and the online community.

VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnam’s ICT community has felt disappointed with recently-released global study on the country’s software piracy rate.  

A former security guard has pleaded guilty to charges that he broke into his employer's computers while working the night shift at a Dallas hospital.
Jesse William McGraw pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of transmitting malicious code, the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) said in a statement.

 Minister of Information and Communications Le Doan Hop said that it is time Vietnam built its own social network to quickly integrate with the world in terms of information.

 The IT-communication industry would focus on core and source technology. Besides restructuring the radio and TV broadcasting network, some new TV channels on foreign relations, rescue and agriculture...

Telecoms international summit to be held in Ha Noi

The 3rd Telecoms International Summit, co-organised by the Ministry of Information and Communications, will be held in Ha Noi from May 18-20.

The inspection of software piracy in Vietnam has been implemented for seven years. This year inspections will be tightened at small and medium enterprises, revealed the chief inspector of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MoCST).

The 2nd Ho Chi Minh City Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Awards were held March 27 in the city, with 10 local enterprises and one individual receiving honors.

Vietnam’s connectivity scorecard increased four notches compared to last year, jumping from the 19th position to the 15th among developing countries, according to the Connective Scorecard 2010 report.

The software industry this year is expecting growth of roughly 30 per cent – as it achieved in the 2005-08 period – according to industry insiders.
Viet Nam currently has roughly 150 software companies, 19 of which are joint ventures.

The number of people interested in the third generation mobile technology (3G) soared in late 2009-early 2010, turning Vietnam into the country with the “greatest passion” for 3G. 

Pham Bao Son, a 33-year-old university lecturer in Hanoi, has become the first Vietnamese to win an IBM Faculty Award given by the US-based computer and technology giant for scientific research.

Vietnam is one of the biggest markets for information and communication technology (ICT) products and services in the world.

A TELESCOPE that can peer into the depths of the net to spot the gathering threat of a botnet could help combat cyber-attacks.

Botnets - networks of compromised computers that are controlled by someone with malicious intent - are an increasingly common feature of the internet. They can be used to flood a target website with useless data to bring it down, launch spam, or spy on computer users by looking for their banking logins and passwords.

The Ministry of Information and Communications’ survey of online public services supplied by government agencies in 2009, showed a sharp increase.

Antivirus software and a firewall alone canot guarantee your safety. Here is how to foil the latest crop of sneaky attacks and nefarious attempts to steal your data.
Do not let that happen to you. Read on for descriptions of 11 of the most recent and most malignant security threats, as well as our complete advice on how to halt them in their tracks.

A research center at the Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCM) has announced its competition of Vietnam’s first-ever analog integrated circuit.

Up to 50,128 types of virus appeared in 2009, 1.5 times more than 2008.

The most prevalent virus was SalityVF.PE, which infected 483,000 PCs.

The Vietnam Internet Centre (VNNIC) on January 13 announced reaching its 100,000 .vn national domain name - ranking second after Singapore in Southeast Asia for the number of national domain names.

HCMC – Viettel Telecom on Thursday announced it had set up a joint venture with Taiwan-based network equipment maker Accton Technology to develop carrier-grade networking equipment targeting the local telecom and customer premise equipment (CPE) segments.
The deal was signed on Wednesday, said a source from the company, adding the deal would pave the way for Viettel to develop its hardware market segment.

As many as 1,037 websites were attacked by hackers in Viet Nam in 2009, while 461 and 342 websites were hacked in 2008 and 2007 respectively.

This year Vietnam will build its own social network to gradually replace foreign social networks like Yahoo and Google, stated Minister of Information and Communications Le Doan Hop at a meeting in HCM City on January 9.

The President’s Office on December 17 made public the Telecommunication Law and the Radiotelegraphy Law, which will take effect on July 1 2010.

Twenty-two products and solutions in four aspects, including sectorial-level IT solution and product, packaging software – commodity software, Vietnam brand name computer and e-commerce product, have been awarded the Vietnam ITC Cup 2009.

From its 13th position last year, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) is now taking the lead in the Vietnam Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Index 2009, announced the Vietnam Association for Information Processing (VAIP) on December 11.
This is the 4th consecutive year the VAIP has coordinated with the Office of the National Steering Committee on Information and Technology to compile the Vietnam ICT Index.

The total number of mobile subscribers of the four mobile networks, VinaPhone, MobiFone, Viettel and S-Fone, is over 48 million, according to a survey by the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC). Of the figure, over 90% are pre-paid subscribers.

Viettel is the leading network with 19.42 million subscribers, followed by MobiFone with over 13.4 million, VinaPhone 12.1 million and 3.14 million for S-Fone.

Finance is the key to developing the software industry, director of Vietsoftware Tran Luong Son has said.

HCM City firms are failing to adequately protect themselves from hackers, according to the municipal Information and Communications Department.

The National Instruction Board for Information Technology convened a meeting November 25 in Hanoi to discuss developing Vietnam’s information technology. Human resources in the sector should be prioritized, experts agreed.

The fifth Viet Nam Talent Contest 2009 took place on November 20 in the capital city to honour Vietnamese talent in the fields of the information technology and natural science.

One of the largest events in the year in the field of information technology, telecommunications and communications, was opened in Hanoi on November 19.

Vietnam ranks ninth among the top 10 nations for outsourcing in the world, according to a recent survey by the Tholons - Global Services Group.

The world’s leading information technology group - IBM - held its first ever seminar in Hanoi on November 5 to introduce its cutting-edge technologies to Vietnam’s telecommunications sector.

Vietnam is gearing itself up for a future plugged-in and switched-on Government.

Vietnam has jumped five grades to 56th out of the 66 countries and territories in the global 2009 information technology (IT) competitiveness index, conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

A Global Services-Tholons Study For the second consecutiveyear, Global Services and Tholons identify the best 50 emerging global outsourcing cities. The study also lists the best cities for outsourcing specific functions.

Vietnamese SMBs are having a chance to get out of the economic recession faster and seize new business opportunities by investing in new technologies, as they have less IT legacy, said Intel executives. 

An Exhibition on Electronics, Communications and Information Technologies and Vietnam IT Week 2009 (eCIT Vietnam-IT Week 2009) will be held in Hanoi from December 10-14.

VietNamNet Bridge – VinaPhone will become the country"s first mobile operator to provide third-generation (3G) technology based services from today, October 12, it has announced.

The firm said that it had successfully tested 3G-based services, including video calls, mobile TV and broadband internet services via mobile phone.

The 15^th Youth Informatics Competition Festival nationwide was held by the Central Committee of Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Ministry of Education - Training and Information Association of Vietnam has just ended.

Viet Nam’s IT workforce is lacking in professional skills, experience and proficiency in foreign languages and the shortage is holding back the industry’s development.

The fourth World IT Forum (WITFOR 2009) in Hanoi was closed on August 28 after three working days.

The Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC) is developing a scheme to turn Vietnam into a powerful country in terms of telecommunications and information technology. The Vietnam Economic Times talks with Do Trung Ta, the Prime Minister’s IT envoy cum chief of the National Steering Board for IT, about this scheme.

Viet Nam plans to become one of the world’s most powerful countries in the information and communication technology industry, according to Le Doan Hop, Minister of Information and Communications.

An awards ceremony for the “IT competition for young people” has been held in Hanoi Municipal Theatre.

Nearly 3,300 computer viruses were discovered in the country in July alone, according to the network security firm Bach Khoa Internet Security Centre (BKIS).

For the first time, Vietnam is not on the list of top ten countries for software copyright infringement. 2009 is also the first year that the country has been named one of the top ten countries for software outsourcing by E-readiness.

The Government must create a new agency responsible for training employees for the burgeoning software and IT services industry, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan has said.

The noted World Information Technology Forum, or WITFOR 2009, will be held for the first time in Vietnam this August. The host country has almost finalised preparations to welcome the nearly 1,500 delegates from 70 countries, said the organisers on July 7.

The UK’s Sophos has announced the trend of spam in the second quarter of 2009. Accordingly, Vietnam is among the top 12 countries in the world for delivering spam, with 2.3 percent.

Six software solutions received the "Best IT Solutions" Cup and 33 information and communications technology services and products won "Best ICT Products" awards given away by PC World Viet Nam magazine at a ceremony on Wednesday.

Vietnam, along with China, India and Indonesia, is expected to have a continued surge in investments for software despite the global recession, according to a report from the International Data Corporation (IDC).

Chau Bunh Khuon is a computer engineer, despite never graduating from a university or taking a professional training course.

Chasing lucrative returns during the rapid development of the high-tech industry, multi-national tech giants are rushing to start operations in Viet Nam.

Fifteen departments of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province’s government are now using eOffice software, with four others ready to apply it later this year.

Up to 97% of computers in Vietnam are infected with viruses, 90% must be re-installed with operating systems and most users don’t care about data protection, according to a survey by Vietnam’s top network security centre, BKIS. 

Viet Nam is the leading consumer of the nettop in the Asia-Pacific region, according to Intel Corporation.

VietNamNet Bridge – Twenty-one prizes of the Vietnam ICT Awards 2008 were presented to the most outstanding organizations in the fields of information and communication technology (ICT) on March 14.

VietNamNet Bridge – Kaspersky Lab has detected new variants of the Kido virus, which works like Trojans that can resist antivirus software installed on infected computers.

VietNamNet Bridge - There is an overseas Vietnamese who made has great contributions to Vietnam’s digital telecommunication industry. He is Professor Le Hiep Tuyen.

VietNamNet Bridge – Four out of every 10 Vietnamese people surf the Internet at least once a week and the rate is 8/10 among those aged between 15 and 24, according to a survey conducted by Cimigo, a leading multi-national research company.

The final round of the 10th Eureka Scientific and Technological Research Awards for Students 2008 will take place from December 3-5 in HCM City, the organizers announced.

This is the second year that the Hanoi University of Technology becomes Vietnam’s representative at the finals of the International Programming Contest for Students, ACM/ICPC 2008 in Stockholm, Sweden next April.

Yahoo on Wednesday introduced more than 250,000 application programming interfaces (API) for the community of Vietnamese programmers.

According to the Vietnam Information Safety Association (VNISA), most of Vietnamese companies are ignoring information security and most of them don’t have procedures to solve information security-related incidents.

VietNamNet Bridge – IBM Group today announced it has appointed Vo Tan Long as its new Chief Executive Officers of IBM Vietnam.

VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese teams won the first and second prizes in a contest called “Capture The Flags”, part of the Hack in the Box Security Conference 2008 (hackinthebox.org) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in late October.

VietNamNet Bridge – Two hundred Vietnamese programmers and four Google experts from Silicon Valley participated in a nine-hour, Google-style seminar at the HCM City-based Polytechnic University Wednesday.

VietNamNet Bridge – Up to 3,910 new types of computer viruses were recorded in Vietnam in October, including 3,905 of internationalorigin and 5 of domestic origin.

VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnam will host the World Information Technology Forum 2009 (WITFOR) for the first time in late August of next year, announced the Ministry of Information and Communications.

VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam will host the World Information Technology Forum 2009 in late August next year, announced the Ministry of Information and Communications.

VietNamNet Bridge – The Vietnamese National Institute of Software and Digital Content was launched in Hanoi on Oct. 27.

VietNamNet Bridge - Most software firms in Vietnam, even foreign-owned ones, are mere outsourcers for foreign information technology firms, a top government official has admitted.

VietNamNet Bridge – Tinh Van Company on September 30 introduced its Xalo.vn search engine, a Vietnamese product.

VietNamNet Bridge – While the information technology industry is developing strongly and internet security is becoming more of a necessity, Vietnam’s human resources in the field of internet security are yet to meet public demand in both quantity and quality.

Vice Chairman of Cisco Group wants to share successful experiences to Viet Nam about bringing Internet to countryside.
On September 22, 2008. Minister Le Doan Hop  of Ministry of Infomation and Communication welcomes and work with Mr. Randy Pond - Vice Chairman of Ciso Systems Group.

VietNamNet Bridge – Experts of the leading network security agency in Vietnam, BKIS, have warned that a new wave of hackers may appear in Vietnam, two years after many hackers were prosecuted.

VietNamNet Bridge – The Vietnam Computer Emergency Response Team may be called the Information Safety Agency, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications.

Yahoo, Intel and Hewlett Packard are teaming up for a joint research project, the Cloud Computing Testbed, the trio of tech titans said Tuesday in a joint announcement.

VietNamNet Bridge – Representatives of PAvietnam said over half of the domain names that were deactivated in the morning on July 29 are operational again. However, many clients still can’t contact PAvietnam.

VietNamNet Bridge – The Vietnam Software Engineering Group (SEG Vietnam), a cooperative between Vietnamese and US universities, is preparing to launch its first IT course this October.

VietNamNet Bridge - The Youth Union has completed preparations for the 14th Young Information Technology Talent contest, taking place in the beach city of Da Nang, the union’s Central Committee secretary Nguyen Hoang Hiep said at a press conference in Ha Noi yesterday.

VietNamNet Bridge – Ten software products that won prizes at the 17th HCM City Young IT Contest will compete in the National Young IT Competition in the central city of Da Nang from July 29-31.

VietNamNet Bridge – Statistics of the Back Khoa Internet Security Centre (BKIS), the leading anti-virus software producer in Vietnam, show that up to 1.256 million computers in Vietnam were attacked by virus W32.Kavo, sourced from China, and its versions in June.

VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Information and Communications on July 2 announced the ranking list of websites of government agencies and local governments based on the numbers of visitors and the readiness of online administrative services provided on these websites.

VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Information and Communication said it is in the process of finalizing a draft on the application of information technology (IT) in state agencies in 2009-2010 as well as on the vision for Vietnam’s e-government, which will be submitted to the government for approval later this month.

VietNamNet Bridge – By the end of May 2008, Vietnam’s average teledensity was 67 phones per 100 residents. The total number of phone subscribers was 58 million. The country also had 6 million Internet subscribers, equivalent to 19.5 million Internet users, reaching a ratio of 23% of the population.

Piracy of software on personal computers (PC) in Vietnam fell from 88 percent in 2006 to 85 percent in 2007, amid a global trend in which piracy rates dropped in most countries. The study showed that Vietnam had the biggest sofware piracy rate decrease in the Asia Pacific region. However, losses more than doubled from the previous year to US$200 million, largely due to the high PC growth rate and currency exchange movements.

Denmark will be giving the Vietnam Software Association (Vinasa) financial and technical assistance in a 4.8 million DKK (about 1 million USD) project signed on May 14 in the capital.

By working with partners, Wireless Reach projects create new ways for people to communicate, access health care and reach global markets Qualcomm, a developer of wireless technologies and data solutions, has announced that it is working to improve access to education tools and resources through the provision of CDMA2000 1xEV-DO wireless broadband services at the Community Technology and Learning Center (CTLC) in Dong Anh, Vietnam. The Community Technology and Learning Center (CTLC) is part of the Training Online Programs and Incubation for Communities (TOPIC64) initiative, supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) ' + char(39)+ N's public/private partnership agreement with Qualcomm through its Wireless Reach initiative and other TOPIC64 partners.