Tran Huu Linh, head of the Vietnam E-Commerce and Information Technology Agency, said that after the Vietnam Computer Emergency Response Team (Vncert) had reported to the Ministry of Transport on the imminent attack, Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) and Vietsovpetro Joint Venture on Tuesday were asked to stay on high alert.

They were told to examine response procedures, update information technology and network security systems, and prepare backup systems. In addition, employees of the two companies were asked to be cautious of suspicious emails.

According to Vncert, the defense system has been turned on and management agencies are closely monitoring the situation.

Vncert has received the notifications on the possible hacker attack from the Vietnam Information Security Association and computer emergency response teams in Asia-Pacific since Monday after the WhiteHat Forum posted an entry saying that international hackers scheduled the attack on the next day.

The attack may be in the forms of network access jamming, website interface change, information theft and attacks on servers. Security experts of the WhiteHat Forum said that the attack was the most likely to occur on June 20 though there might be some changes in the attack time.