VPSKeys

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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. [1]

Contents

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

VPS encoding
Alias(es)x-viet-vps [2]
Language(s) Vietnamese, English
Classification8-bit SBCS
Based on ASCII

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.

VPS Encoding [3] [4] [5]
0123456789ABCDEF
0x NUL SOH
1EA0

1EAC

1EB6

1EB8

1EC6
BEL BS HT LF VT FF CR SO SI
1x
1ECA

1ECC

1ED8

1EE2

1EE4

1EF0
SYN ETB CAN
1EF4
SUB ESC
1EAA

1EEE
RS US
2x SP !"#$%&'()*+,-./
3x 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ?
4x@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNO
5xPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_
6x`abcdefghijklmno
7xpqrstuvwxyz{|}~ DEL
8xÀ
00C0

1EA2
Ã
00C3

1EA4

1EA6

1EA8

1ECD

1ED7
Ă
0102
ế
1EBF

1EC1

1EC3

1EC7

1EAE

1EB0

1EB2
9x
1EBE

2018

2019

1EC0

1EC2

1EC4

1ED0

1ED2

1ED4

1ED6
ý
00FD

1EF7

1EF5

1EDA

1EDC

1EDE
Ax NBSP
1EAF

1EB1

1EB3

1EB5

1EB7

1EE0

1EDB
Ù
00D9

1EDD

1EDF

1EE1
Ũ
0168

1EE8

1EE3

1EEA
Bx
1ED5

1EEC

1EF2

1EF8
Í
00CD
Ì
00CC

1ED9

1EC8
Ĩ
0128
Ó
00D3

1EED

1EEF
Ò
00D2

1ECE
Õ
00D5

1EF1
Cx
1EA7
ÁÂ
1EA5

1EA9

1EAB

1EAD
đ
0111

1EBB
ÉÊ
1EB9

1EC9

1EC5

1ECB

1EF9
DxƯ
01AF

1EE6

1ED3

1ED1
Ô
1ECF
ơ
01A1
È
00C8

1EEB

1EE9
Úũ
0169
ư
01B0
Ý
1EBA
ß
Exàáâã
1EA3

1EA1
ă
0103
çèéê
1EBD
ìíîĩ
0129
Fx
1EB4
Đ
0110
òóôõöƠ
01A0

1EE5
ùú
1EE7
ü
1EF6

1EBC

1EF3

Trojan incident

In March 2010, Google [6] and McAfee [7] 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. [8] McAfee suspects that the authors of the trojan have ties to the Vietnamese government. [7] However, Nguyễn Tử Quảng of Bách Khoa Internet Security (Bkis) called McAfee's accusation "somewhat premature". [9] The Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement calling Google's and McAfee's comments "groundless". [10]

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. [11]

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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. 1 2 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.