A debate is raging among the Vietnamese online community about whether Bach Khoa Internetwork Security Center (BKIS) was right to gain control over two command and control servers in its effort to investigate the source of recent cyber attacks on US and South Korean websites.

Bach Khoa Internetwork Security Centre, which identified the source of recent attacks on the US and Korean governments’ websites

This act nominally violates Vietnamese and international laws.

But rejecting the claim, BKIS cited Decree 64/2007 issued by the Government which says: “In emergency cases that may lead to a serious incident or a cyber terrorist attack, concerned agencies are entitled to take action against the attack first and make a report to the competent agency afterwards.”

Also denying the claim that the Korean computer emergency response team (KrCERT) did not make an official request to it for assistance, BKIS said KrCERT had sent an email urgently seeking help to the Asia Pacific Computer Emergency Response Team, of which it is a founding member.

“We are continuing our investigation into the case and so we have not had time to make a report,” BKIS said.

It has, however, been asked by the Vietnam Computer Emergency Respond Team (VNCERT) for a reply to a letter sent by Jinhyun Cho, a senior expert at KrCERT.

In the letter he claimed the KrCERT had not made an official request to BKIS for assistance in detecting the attackers.

In its request to VNCERT, KrCERT had only sought assistance in removing harmful codes from a number of Vietnam-based IP addresses that took part in the attacks, he said.

Mr. Vu Quoc Khanh, director of VNCERT, said both VNCERT and BKIS had received warnings from the Korean side but refused to divulge the content of the warning.