AI makes cyberattacks cause more damage

The international exercise on cyber security incident response ACID 2024 officially opened on the morning of October 15.

This is an annual international exercise between CERTs - cyber emergency response organizations of 10 ASEAN countries and 5 dialogue countries including India, South Korea, Japan, China and Australia, to enhance incident response readiness and promote technical capacity of response teams.

With the theme 'Proactively responding to the rise of cyber attacks using AI' , the ACID 2024 exercise addresses the trend of applying artificial intelligence - AI in many industries and fields, including the abuse of AI for malicious purposes.

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Deputy Director in charge of VNCERT/CC Dang Huy Hoang delivered the opening speech of the exercise. Photo: Van Anh

Affirming the importance of ensuring network safety and security in digital transformation, Mr. Dang Huy Hoang, Deputy Director in charge of the Vietnam Cyberspace Emergency Response Center - VNCERT/CC, Department of Information Security (Ministry of Information and Communications) said: In the digital age, information is an invaluable asset and also the target of attacks by hacker groups.

Many people are using AI every day and AI is also helping people in many aspects of life; however, the consequences are also very dangerous and unpredictable when AI is abused for bad purposes. Cyber ​​attacks using AI will be multi-pronged, more sophisticated, more thorough and unpredictable.

In fact, in recent times, there have been many large-scale cyber attacks that have caused serious consequences, leaked important information, disrupted operations and negatively affected the reputation of the attacked organization.

“In the coming time, attacks will continue with much greater frequency and damage, as cybercriminals take advantage of AI in their attacks. To deal with these challenges, we need thorough understanding, skills, techniques and above all, close cooperation, not only domestically but also internationally,” Mr. Dang Huy Hoang emphasized.

Vietnam and 17 international teams practice cyber attack response skills

According to the representative of VNCERT/CC, the international exercise ACID 2024 has 2 sessions, including a technical session on the whole day of October 15 and a roundtable exercise session on the morning of October 16.

In addition to being the focal point for coordinating the implementation of the technical exercise session taking place from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on October 15, for more than 200 network member units in a combined direct and online format, VNCERT is also the representative of Vietnam participating in the online roundtable exercise with 17 other international teams.

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The ACID 2024 technical session was attended by nearly 450 officials from Vietnamese agencies and units. Photo: Van Anh

Participating in the exercise, nearly 450 technical staff from ministries, branches, localities, telecommunications and Internet service providers, businesses and information security organizations will be aware of the trend of attacks using AI through specific situations.

Units and technical staff will have the opportunity to hone their skills in responding to cyberattacks using AI, through incident handling, investigation, analysis, mitigation and reporting.

The goal is for units to be ready and proactive in responding to increasing network incidents from new trends, ensuring the safety of information systems, especially important national information systems, thereby contributing to protecting national sovereignty in cyberspace.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of ACID 2024, a representative of the Department of Information Security asked the Vietnamese teams to focus on the situations and questions raised in the exercise, assuming that they were real situations happening in their units to respond.

“In addition to increasing information sharing and cooperation in incident response and handling, units also need to draw lessons and disseminate to their organizations this new attack trend, how to detect and prevent new types of attacks using AI,” the VNCERT/CC representative added.

In the first 9 months of 2024, there were 4,029 cyber attacks on systems in Vietnam causing incidents, down 53.2% compared to the same period last year.
Technical staff from Asia-Pacific countries practice responding to APT attacks . The international exercise APCERT 2024 with the theme 'Responding to APT attacks: Finding solutions to difficult problems' was held on August 29, with the participation of technical staff from Vietnam and other Asia-Pacific countries.