VPSKeys

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]

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
Classification	8-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]

	_0	_1	_2	_3	_4	_5	_6	_7	_8	_9	_A	_B	_C	_D	_E	_F
0_	NUL 0000	SOH 0001	Ạ 1EA0	Ậ 1EAC	Ặ 1EB6	Ẹ 1EB8	Ệ 1EC6	BEL 0007	BS 0008	HT 0009	LF 000A	VT 000B	FF 000C	CR 000D	SO 000E	SI 000F
1_	Ị 1ECA	Ọ 1ECC	Ộ 1ED8	Ợ 1EE2	Ụ 1EE4	Ự 1EF0	SYN 0016	ETB 0017	CAN 0018	Ỵ 1EF4	SUB 001A	ESC 001B	Ẫ 1EAA	Ữ 1EEE	RS 001E	US 001F
2_	SP 0020	! 0021	" 0022	# 0023	$ 0024	% 0025	& 0026	' 0027	( 0028	) 0029	* 002A	+ 002B	, 002C	- 002D	. 002E	/ 002F
3_	0 0030	1 0031	2 0032	3 0033	4 0034	5 0035	6 0036	7 0037	8 0038	9 0039	: 003A	; 003B	< 003C	= 003D	> 003E	? 003F
4_	@ 0040	A 0041	B 0042	C 0043	D 0044	E 0045	F 0046	G 0047	H 0048	I 0049	J 004A	K 004B	L 004C	M 004D	N 004E	O 004F
5_	P 0050	Q 0051	R 0052	S 0053	T 0054	U 0055	V 0056	W 0057	X 0058	Y 0059	Z 005A	[ 005B	\ 005C	] 005D	^ 005E	_ 005F
6_	` 0060	a 0061	b 0062	c 0063	d 0064	e 0065	f 0066	g 0067	h 0068	i 0069	j 006A	k 006B	l 006C	m 006D	n 006E	o 006F
7_	p 0070	q 0071	r 0072	s 0073	t 0074	u 0075	v 0076	w 0077	x 0078	y 0079	z 007A	{ 007B	| 007C	} 007D	~ 007E	DEL 007F
8_	À 00C0	Ả 1EA2	Ã 00C3	Ấ 1EA4	Ầ 1EA6	Ẩ 1EA8	ọ 1ECD	ỗ 1ED7	Ă 0102	ế 1EBF	ề 1EC1	ể 1EC3	ệ 1EC7	Ắ 1EAE	Ằ 1EB0	Ẳ 1EB2
9_	Ế 1EBE			Ề 1EC0	Ể 1EC2	Ễ 1EC4	Ố 1ED0	Ồ 1ED2	Ổ 1ED4	Ỗ 1ED6	ý 00FD	ỷ 1EF7	ỵ 1EF5	Ớ 1EDA	Ờ 1EDC	Ở 1EDE
A_		ắ 1EAF	ằ 1EB1	ẳ 1EB3	ẵ 1EB5	ặ 1EB7	Ỡ 1EE0	ớ 1EDB	Ù 00D9	ờ 1EDD	ở 1EDF	ỡ 1EE1	Ũ 0168	Ứ 1EE8	ợ 1EE3	Ừ 1EEA
B_	ổ 1ED5	Ử 1EEC	Ỳ 1EF2	Ỹ 1EF8	Í 00CD	Ì 00CC	ộ 1ED9	Ỉ 1EC8	Ĩ 0128	Ó 00D3	ử 1EED	ữ 1EEF	Ò 00D2	Ỏ 1ECE	Õ 00D5	ự 1EF1
C_	ầ 1EA7	Á 00C1	Â 00C2	ấ 1EA5	ẩ 1EA9	ẫ 1EAB	ậ 1EAD	đ 0111	ẻ 1EBB	É 00C9	Ê 00CA	ẹ 1EB9	ỉ 1EC9	ễ 1EC5	ị 1ECB	ỹ 1EF9
D_	Ư 01AF	Ủ 1EE6	ồ 1ED3	ố 1ED1	Ô 00D4	ỏ 1ECF	ơ 01A1	È 00C8	ừ 1EEB	ứ 1EE9	Ú 00DA	ũ 0169	ư 01B0	Ý 00DD	Ẻ 1EBA
E_	à 00E0	á 00E1	â 00E2	ã 00E3	ả 1EA3	ạ 1EA1	ă 0103		è 00E8	é 00E9	ê 00EA	ẽ 1EBD	ì 00EC	í 00ED		ĩ 0129
F_	Ẵ 1EB4	Đ 0110	ò 00F2	ó 00F3	ô 00F4	õ 00F5		Ơ 01A0	ụ 1EE5	ù 00F9	ú 00FA	ủ 1EE7		Ỷ 1EF6	Ẽ 1EBC	ỳ 1EF3

  Letter   Number   Punctuation   Symbol   Other   Undefined

Trojan incident

In March 2010, Google[5] and McAfee[6] 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.[7] McAfee suspects that the authors of the trojan have ties to the Vietnamese government.[6] However, Nguyễn Tử Quảng of Bách Khoa Internet Security (Bkis) called McAfee's accusation "somewhat premature".[8] The Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement calling Google's and McAfee's comments "groundless".[9]

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.[10]

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. Neel Mehta (2010-03-30). "The Chilling Effects of Malware". Google Online Security Blog. Google. Retrieved 2010-03-31.
6. Kurtz, George (2010-03-30). "Vietnamese Speakers Targeted In Cyberattack". Security Insights Blog. McAfee.
7. Wassener, Bettina (2010-03-31). "Google Links Web Attacks to Vietnam Mine Dispute". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-03-31.
8. "Google cáo giác về 'tin tặc chính trị' VN". BBC Vietnamese (in Vietnamese). BBC. 2010-03-31. Retrieved 2010-04-01.
9. Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2010-04-03). "The comments on malware targeted at Vietnamese computers users are groudless". Retrieved 2010-04-05.
10. "Thư xin lỗi của HCGVN" (in Vietnamese). Vietnamese Professional Society. 2010-04-01. Retrieved 2010-04-03.

External links

• Vietnamese Professionals Society
• Download VpsKeys 4.3