Centre 586, under High Command 86, serves as a cyber warfare unit that is tasked with reconnaissance, surveillance, data collection, and grasp of the plots, tactics, and sabotage activities of hostile forces in cyberspace to promptly report, advice, and propose response strategies. Additionally, it organises defence activities and ensures the security of the Army’s command information systems and high-tech weapon control systems while coordinating with other forces in defending and protecting the national information system. This new, extremely challenging, and complex mission is carried out in a highly specific environment with incomplete force organisation conditions and limited support. Furthermore, Centre 586 operates in a context where our country is vigorously pursuing digital transformation, building a digital government, and developing an elite, compact, and strong Army that advances towards modernity. Along with the development of science and technology, espionage activities in cyberspace, cyberattacks, and cybercrime are becoming extremely complex with varied and sophisticated methods. As a result, hostile and reactionary forces exploit cyberspace to undermine the Party, the State, and the Army with new and dangerous tactics. In response to these challenges and based on a thorough understanding of the situation and tasks at hand, the Centre, with its youthful energy, intelligence, initiative, creativity, unity, determination, and absolute loyalty, continually leverages its internal strength and closely collaborates with relevant agencies and units in order to successfully accomplish all assigned tasks, contributing significantly to the firm protection of national sovereignty in cyberspace. These efforts help the Centre to progressively establish itself as a vanguard unit on this new front, playing a pivotal role in ensuring and protecting information security within the Army and national critical information infrastructure. In recognition of these achievements, Centre 586 has been honourably awarded by the Ministry of National Defence, the General Staff, and the High Command 86.

To achieve these significant accomplishments, the Party Committee and Board of Directors of Centre 586 have focused on leading and directing its units to build a high political determination and to synchronously implement various policies and measures to enhance the capability of fulfilling tasks, ensuring information security, cyber security, and national sovereignty in cyberspace.

Staff of the Centre receive award at the Hackathon Contest held by the Youth Union's Central Committee in 2022

First of all, emanating from the practical necessity to regularly engage in intellectual combats and operations against highly skilled adversaries in cyberspace, the Centre has attached importance to organisational consolidation and the development of high-quality human resources that meet task requirements and identified it as a breakthrough and critical element. In light of Resolution No. 230-NQ/QUTW, dated 2 April 2022, by the Central Military Commission and Resolution No. 453-NQ/ĐU dated 24 May 2022 by the Party Committee of High Command 86 regarding the leadership for the organisation of High Command 86 for the 2021 - 2030 period and beyond, the Centre’s Party Committee has issued thematic resolutions to lead the force building and development plans and action programmes tailored to its specific characteristics, functions, and tasks. Accordingly, the Centre implemented the organisational structure and staffing for phase 1, ensuring accuracy in timing and quality while proactively proposing the development and implementation of the organisational structure and staffing for the next phase, closely following the development of the situation and task requirements.

As a newly established unit (since December 2013), the majority of the Centre’s officers and technical staff are young, often working quietly in the cyber environment, directly exposed to harmful, negative, and adverse aspects of society, making them susceptible to ideological influences. Faced with that reality, alongside rigorous selection and evaluation processes to ensure the political standards of incoming human resources, the Centre has intensified the thorough understanding of tasks as well as political and ideological education to officers and staff to ensure that they thoroughly grasp the Party’s guidelines and viewpoints on military and national defence tasks, particularly legal documents, mechanisms, and policies regarding state management in cyberspace, focusing on the 2015 Law on Cyberinformation Security and the 2018 Law on Cybersecurity. The Centre strictly implements and adheres to commands, orders, and combat readiness plans, the situation and requirements of each force’s task, and the plots and tactics of hostile forces and combat adversaries, etc. Through this process, the Centre aims to build a force with solid political bravery, a vigilant revolutionary spirit, a passion for their profession, and a constant readiness to accept and successfully complete all assigned tasks.

Due to the dynamic and rapidly evolving nature of its tasks, in line with the development of science and technology, and the lack of formal training programmes for tactics and methods of “combat” in this field, Centre 586 has promoted the innovation and improvement of the quality of training and fostering officers and technical staff towards an “elite, quick, and effective” approach. To this end, the Centre leverages its internal strengths and forms teams and groups led by leading experts and officers for research and data collection. Simultaneously, it actively collaborates with agencies and units, especially IT-focused research centres and institutes, to develop training programmes, compile materials, and organise training courses. During the implementation process, the Centre has employed a variety of forms and methods, emphasising the close integration of training with mission execution and valuing group work methodologies. Experienced personnel mentor and develop less knowledgeable members, fostering mutual learning and promoting proactive self-study and self-research. Besides, the Centre has enhanced the application of information and digital technology in its training activities, especially in developing and updating a system of exercises with various hypothetical cyber-attack scenarios on virtual battlefields, bringing troops closer to real-life tasks. This approach enhances their critical thinking, creativity, decisiveness, and efficient situation handling. Since 2020, the Centre has collaborated with various agencies and units to develop hundreds of textbooks and materials related to the task of protecting cyberspace sovereignty and to organise over 600 refresher and advanced training courses for different subjects. As a result, the Centre has become a hub of high-quality human resources. Currently, the majority of the Centre’s staff hold master’s degrees or higher, with many being experts who acquired prestigious international certificates in information technology and cybersecurity. These core members are vital in developing and building the Centre to meet the task requirements in the new situation.

To enhance its capability to counter increasingly sophisticated methods and tricks of espionage and cyberattacks of hostile forces, in recent years, Centre 586 has been actively and proactively advising, proposing, and participating in building and developing a safe, healthy, and extensive cyberspace, aiming towards establishing a robust national defence posture in cyberspace. Closely adhering to its functions and tasks, the Centre has proactively researched and proposed to the High Command several plans for planning and expanding military computer network infrastructure, developing common and specialised software for command, management, directive, and operational tasks over computer networks, and promoting administrative reform within the Ministry of National Defence. Simultaneously, the Centre has effectively implemented professional measures, collaborated with units to review information security risks, and gathered information related to spyware. It monitors, inspects, and assesses information security, promptly detecting and neutralising malware and spyware, preventing data breaches, and responding to and rectifying incidents to ensure the smooth operation of military computer networks. To enhance monitoring and improve the detection of security vulnerabilities, the Centre actively deploys and develops the Information Security Monitoring System (FMS/FMC & MiAV), aimed at covering the data transmission network throughout the Army, monitoring 100% of units under the Ministry of National Defence and 100% of military computers via information security monitoring and malware handling software (MiAV). This provides High Command 86 with a comprehensive overview of the information security situation in the military data transmission network, enabling proactive defence and protection plans. Additionally, the Centre has detected and proposed remediation solutions for hundreds of security vulnerabilities and severe information safety risks in the information systems of critical agencies of the Party, the State, and national economic and strategic sectors. Notably, it has detected and collaborated with functional agencies to prevent multiple foreign hacker groups from attacking the national critical information systems. Concurrently, the Centre actively coordinates with agencies and units within and outside the Army to technically and operationally support the Central Steering Committee 35 and the Military Commission Central Steering Committee 35 in leading and directing the counteraction of erroneous and hostile viewpoints in cyberspace, firmly protecting the Party’s ideological foundation.

Leveraging its strengths in human resources, Centre 586 has intensified its efforts in scientific research and the development of high-tech products, meeting the requirements and tasks of protecting national cyberspace sovereignty. By grasping the trends in the development of application software and specialised IT equipment, the Centre proactively develops scientific research plans and proposes unique mechanisms and policies to boost the scientific research movement within the unit. In recent times, along with strengthening cooperation and linkages with research centres and institutes both within and outside the Army, the Centre has intensified emulation movements like “Army Youth cultivating virtue, honing talent, taking the initiative, innovating, and being determined to win” and “One focus, two initiatives, and three innovations” to fully utilise potential and strengths, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of scientific research activities. From 2018 to 2023, the Centre completed 38 topics and initiatives, of which 32 won awards at the army-wide level. The researched products and topics have been directly applied to the operations of the Centre, units within High Command 86, and throughout the Army, significantly contributing to the effectiveness of task execution. Notable examples include topics such as “Enhancing the capability of detecting cyber attacks using AI” and “Developing information security software for specialised network systems of provinces and cities across the country”.

With bravery, intelligence, and a spirit of determination to fight and win, Centre 586 is determined to overcome all difficulties and challenges. It consistently maintains a firm grasp of all developments and situations in cyberspace, timely advising High Command 86 and closely coordinating with other forces for prompt and effective response, ensuring no situation left unattended and unexpected. This vigilance and proactivity are crucial in ensuring information security and safety, protecting national sovereignty in cyberspace, and contributing significantly to firmly safeguarding the Fatherland in all circumstances.

Lieutenant Colonel, MSc. NGUYEN VAN BAC, Director of Centre 586