Online sale of personal data organized and widespread in Vietnam

Nguyen Minh Chinh, head of the Department of Cybersecurity and Crime Prevention using High Technology, said personal data had been on sale online for a long time on websites, social media and forums.

“Personal data selling is carried out in a systemic, organized manner. The sellers even have warranties for the data, and they can be updated and extracted as buyers want,” he said Tuesday, adding that some transactions to buy data were even done through bank accounts.

Data sales are not only carried between individuals, but also companies and organizations.

Some companies even use complex systems to illegally collect data for sale.

Last year, the Ministry of Public Security busted and verified 16 cases of data leaks and sales concerning state secrets and internal data. Hundreds of people and organizations have been dealt with for their involvement in such cases, with data packages worth thousands of gigabytes.

Data management has multiple challenges, such as data centers not being regularly maintained and upgraded, and data personnel lacking.

Since the beginning of this year, attacks on systems in Vietnam have become more complex and prevalent, posing higher risks for data leaks as databases of organizations and businesses are attacked by hackers, authorities said.

Cybersecurity experts said there needs to be information exchanges between cybersecurity units, such as Viettel Cyber Security and the National Cybersecurity Association (NCA).

Vu Ngoc Son, head of the research, counseling, technology development and international cooperation department under the NCA, said proactive defense, early detection and quick recovery should be key tenets to deal with cybersecurity threats.

Experts at the Vietnam National Cyber Security Technology Company have proposed the creation of a platform to share cybersecurity information.

Such data would be compiled from both public and intelligence sources, and they would be used to detect and prevent attacks across systems.

“Information sharing is the best way to have a big picture and updated information on cybersecurity,” Son said.