A conference on cyber security to protect key national informational systems was held in HCM City on June 17. VNA Photo

HCM CITY — Việt Nam need to focus on reinforcing its cyber security to protect important information systems of the State and businesses, experts said.

Việt Nam’s digital economy is expected to reach US$43 billion by 2025. However, it has been facing many dangerous, complicated and large-scale cyberattacks.

The country is among the top 10 nations most exposed to cyber attacks and malware, and ranked seventh in terms of countries with the most cyber crime victims.

Việt Nam recorded nearly 5,500 instances of cyber attacks in the first five months of the year, including malware attacks, phishing attempts and website defacement (changing visual appearance of a website).

During a conference on information security held on June 17, Colonel Đỗ Minh Kim, deputy head of Office 3 of the Cyber Security and Hi-tech Crime Prevention Department under the Ministry of Public Security, said that there have been many Advanced Persistent Threats (APT) conducted against crucial information systems of the State and businesses.

Cyber attacks mainly make use of security holes in routers, security software, online meeting applications, and public service portals.

They have caused a tremendous amount of damage to businesses’ cyber security and operations, he said.

“Implementing national security strategies, and developing more cyber security products and services for locals, businesses and organisations are very important. Ensuring cyber security is among Việt Nam’s top priorities to facilitate digital transformation.”

Nguyễn Văn Tuấn, information security consultant from VNPT Information Technology Company, said that information security risks can come from data harvesting systems extracting data from databases.

Businesses and organisations need to be able to quickly detect anything that accesses or queries into their databases that do not follow their information safety policies, and deal with them in a timely manner.

Databases also need to be kept up-to-date so that they can quickly recognise information security risks and deploy countermeasures.

The conference was held in HCM City by the Cyber Security and Hi-tech Crime Prevention Department and International Data Group Việt Nam. — VNS