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Participants in the cyber security drill 2022 at Quang Trung Software City in HCMC. |
In 2022, computer viruses have created a property damage of VND21.2 trillion (US$883 million) to Vietnamese people. Some serious incidents are the loss of VND2.1 billion ($88,800) of a bank customer in HCMC when upgrading the mobile phone SIM card or the loss of VND5.5 billion ($232,500) of a victim in Hanoi after following instructions of an impersonator of the police in a phone call.
General Director of Bkav Cyber Security Co. in charge of AntiMalware Nguyen Tien Dat stated that cyber criminals have become more sophisticated in their tricks. Statistics from this company reveal that three out of four phone users in Vietnam have experienced fraudulent calls related to finance matters.
Personal mobile devices of employees have lately been given a right to access their business’s local network. Taking advantage of this, cyber criminals are trying to spread malware onto these smart equipment pieces to steal money or valuable data.
Since the impacts of such online attacks are too grave, state management agencies and people in the field of cyber security must frequently update feasible solutions to stop those harmful actions.
Deputy Director of the HCMC Department of Information and Communications Vo Thi Trung Trinh shared that HCMC is focusing all resources to carry out the project to transform the city into a smart one as well as the digital transformation process. Therefore, cyber security is at the top priority, including activities to raise the awareness of state agencies and the local authorities, political-social organizations, businesses about this matter.
In such a context, a drill on cyber security is essential as an effort of HCMC to proactively respond to an increasing number of cyberattacks recently. The drill has practices in the aspects of preventing account takeover and email spreading with harmful content (state management, data encryption); preventing phishing attacks to take control of victims’ computers to further attack related servers; stopping attacks taking advantage of vulnerability in a company’s website while eliminating these detected weaknesses; stopping systematic attacks to the unit’s firewall.
More seriously, there now exists more dangerous attacks on the virtual environment using drones attached with a tool to collect Wi-fi Protected Access (WPA) to reveal the corresponding password, or dropping a USB at public places and waiting for curious people to connect that USB to their computer, becoming a victim.
Kaspersky has warned that in 2023, the number of cyberattacks will reach a new peak, severely affecting key industries, critical civil facilities like electricity grids and mobile networks. Bkav proposed that organizations and state agencies must accelerate the implementation of Directive No.14/2018 about improving the capacity to fight against malware and Directive No.14/2019 about maintaining cyber security to improve the ranking of Vietnam.
