VPSKeys is a

freeware Freeware is software, most often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the f ...

input method editor An input method (or input method editor, commonly abbreviated IME) is an operating system component or program that enables users to generate characters not natively available on their input devices by using sequences of characters (or mouse o ...

developed and distributed by the Vietnamese Professionals Society (VPS). One of the first input method editors for Vietnamese, it allows users to add

accent marks A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...

to Vietnamese text on computers running

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

. The first version of VPSKeys, supporting Windows 3.1, was released in 1993. The most recent version is 4.3, released in October 2007.VPSKeys homepage.

Features

VPSKeys supports the

Telex The telex network is a station-to-station switched network of teleprinters similar to a Public switched telephone network, telephone network, using telegraph-grade connecting circuits for two-way text-based messages. Telex was a major method of ...

, VISCII,

VNI VNI Software Company is a developer of various education, entertainment, office, and utility computer software, software packages. They are known for developing an Character encoding, encoding (VNI encoding) and a popular input method (VNI Input) ...

, and

VIQR Vietnamese Quoted-Readable (usually abbreviated VIQR), also known as Vietnet, is a convention for writing Vietnamese using ASCII characters encoded in only 7 bits, making possible for Vietnamese to be supported in computing and communication system ...

input methods, as well as a number of

character encoding Character encoding is the process of assigning numbers to Graphics, graphical character (computing), characters, especially the written characters of Language, human language, allowing them to be Data storage, stored, Data communication, transmi ...

s. One of its unique features is a "hook/tilde dictionary" (), which provides

spelling suggestion Spelling suggestion is a feature of many computer software applications used to suggest plausible replacements for words that are likely to have been misspelled. ''Spelling suggestion'' features are commonly included in Internet search engines, wor ...

s for distinguishing words with or tones. This feature is helpful for speakers of dialects in which these two tones have merged.

VPS character encoding

The "VPS"

for writing Vietnamese replaces several control characters, including several

C0 control characters The C0 and C1 control code or control character sets define control codes for use in text by computer systems that use ASCII and derivatives of ASCII. The codes represent additional information about the text, such as the position of a cursor, ...

, with letters while including the

ASCII ASCII ( ), abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices. Because of ...

graphical characters unmodified, a similar approach to VSCII-1 (TCVN1) and

VISCII VISCII is an unofficially-defined modified ASCII character encoding for using the Vietnamese language with computers. It should not be confused with the similarly-named officially registered VSCII encoding. VISCII keeps the 95 printable charac ...

Trojan incident

In March 2010,

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

and

McAfee McAfee Corp. ( ), formerly known as McAfee Associates, Inc. from 1987 to 1997 and 2004 to 2014, Network Associates Inc. from 1997 to 2004, and Intel Security Group from 2014 to 2017, is an American global computer security software company head ...

announced on their security blogs that they believe that hackers compromised the VPS website and replaced the program with a trojan. The trojan, which McAfee has code-named W32/

VulcanBot Vulcanbot is the name of a Trojan (malware), Trojan botnet predominantly spread in Vietnam, apparently with political motives. It is thought to have started spreading in late 2009. The botnet began to spread after the website of the Vietnamese Pro ...

, creates a

botnet A botnet is a group of Internet-connected devices, each of which runs one or more bots. Botnets can be used to perform Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks, steal data, send spam, and allow the attacker to access the device and its conn ...

that could be used to launch

distributed denial of service In computing, a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) is a cyber-attack in which the perpetrator seeks to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services of a host connect ...

attacks on websites critical of the Vietnamese government's plan to mine

bauxite Bauxite is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (Al(OH)3), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)) and diaspore (α-AlO(O ...

in the country's Central Highlands. McAfee suspects that the authors of the trojan have ties to the

Vietnamese government The Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (), also known as the Vietnamese Government or the Government of Vietnam (), is the executive branch and body of the State administration of Vietnam. The members of the Government are appoi ...

. However, Nguyễn Tử Quảng of Bách Khoa Internet Security (Bkis) called McAfee's accusation "somewhat premature". The Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement calling Google's and McAfee's comments "groundless". VPS discovered a breach on their website on January 22, 2010, and restored the non-infected software then, but did not publicize it widely because they did not realize the serious nature of the matter.

References

External links

Vietnamese Professionals SocietyDownload VpsKeys 4.3
Vietnamese character input Windows-only freeware {{free-software-stub