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VPSKeys is a freeware input method editor 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 to Vietnamese text on computers running Microsoft Windows. The first version of VPSKeys, supporting Windows 3.1, was released in 1993. The most recent version is 4.3, released in October 2007.

Features

VPSKeys supports the Telex, VISCII, VNI, and VIQR input methods, as well as a number of character encodings. One of its unique features is a "hook/tilde dictionary" (Tự Điển Hỏi Ngã), which provides spelling suggestions for distinguishing words with hỏi or ngã tones. This feature is helpful for speakers of dialects in which these two tones have merged.

VPS character encoding

The "VPS" character encoding for writing Vietnamese replaces several control characters, including several C0 control characters, with letters while including the ASCII graphical characters unmodified, a similar approach to VSCII-1 (TCVN1) and VISCII.

Trojan incident

In March 2010, Google and McAfee 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, creates a botnet that could be used to launch distributed denial of service attacks on websites critical of the Vietnamese government's plan to mine bauxite in the country's Central Highlands. McAfee suspects that the authors of the trojan have ties to the Vietnamese government. 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

1. VPSKeys homepage.
2. Sivonen, Henri (2014-09-26). "Character encoding changes in m-c require c-c action". mozilla.dev.apps.thunderbird.
3. "Unicode & Vietnamese Legacy Character Encodings". Vietnamese Unicode FAQs.
4. "VPS Character Set (Vietnamese Professional Society)". Vietnamese Unicode FAQs.
5. Tang, Frank. "vps.ut (VPS to Unicode)". Mozilla Uconv. Netscape/Mozilla.
6. Neel Mehta (2010-03-30). "The Chilling Effects of Malware". Google Online Security Blog. Google LLC. Retrieved 2010-03-31.
7. ^ Kurtz, George (2010-03-30). "Vietnamese Speakers Targeted In Cyberattack". Security Insights Blog. McAfee.
8. Wassener, Bettina (2010-03-31). "Google Links Web Attacks to Vietnam Mine Dispute". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-03-31.
9. "Google cáo giác về 'tin tặc chính trị' VN". BBC Vietnamese (in Vietnamese). BBC. 2010-03-31. Retrieved 2010-04-01.
10. Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2010-04-03). "The comments on malware targeted at Vietnamese computers users are groudless". Retrieved 2010-04-05.
11. "Thư xin lỗi của HCGVN" (in Vietnamese). Vietnamese Professional Society. 2010-04-01. Archived from the original on 2016-03-10. Retrieved 2010-04-03.

External links

• Vietnamese Professionals Society
• Download VpsKeys 4.3

• Input methods
• 1993 software
• Vietnamese character input
• Windows-only freeware