Vietnam Keen on Comprehensive National Strategy to Address Network Problems

Vietnam is keen for a comprehensive national strategy to address network problems. Over the years, the country's digital economy has progressed rapidly but challenges in network security remains. The rapid expansion of the digital economy has been accompanied by an increase in network security risks in all respects, including new risks, the number of incidents and the level of damage.

The latest report by Kaspersky Lab highlights Vietnam among the most targeted nations for banking malware in 2018, accounting for three per cent of global attacks. Moreover, in January of 2019, Vietnam suffered more than 800,000 malicious codes on a daily basis. If calculated by the percentage of internet users, 21.5 per cent of users in Vietnam faced the threat of being attacked. Cyber security threats, Kaspersky said has become more and more sophisticated in the digital era.

Furthermore, the latest survey by the Ministry of Information and Communications revealed that 63 per cent of 90 state agencies and organizations across sectors, cities and provinces had only paid modest attention to information security (Level C). And 12 per cent had started to look at information security (Level D), which included big ministries such as the Ministry of Industry and Trade and Ministry of Science and Technology. Only 15 per cent had adequate measures in place for information security. The Vice-Chairman and General Secretary of the Vietnam Information Security Association (VNISA) Vu Quoc Thanh said they have different solutions at a certain level to ensure network security. He pointed out the lack of comprehensive national strategy and specific implementation process. Thanh said awareness and capability for safe use of the internet by majority of Vietnamese users was still limited.