Vietnam records over 5,400 cyberattacks in five months

The report by the ministry’s Authority of Information Security says 930 were Phishing, the type of attack that attempts to steal money or identity, by getting a person to reveal personal information such as credit card numbers, bank information, or passwords on websites that pretend to be legitimate.

Deface, an attack on a website that changes the visual appearance of a website or a web page, accounted for 776 attacks.

The majority of attacks, 3,757, were Malware, which is software intentionally designed to cause disruption to a computer, server, client, or computer network, leak private information, gain unauthorized access to information or systems, deprive users access to information or which unknowingly interferes with the user’s computer security and privacy.

In 2021, the ministry had recorded, warned, and instructed relevant agencies to handle more than 9,700 cyberattacks leading to problems with information systems in Vietnam, an increase of 42.4 percent against the previous year.

The damage caused by computer viruses to Vietnamese users was VND24.4 trillion ($1.06 billion) last year when 70.7 million computers were attacked, according to a report released in December by cybersecurity firm Bkav.

According to Bkav, many Vietnamese still have the habit of using non-copyrighted software which is not updated regularly.

“Only about 10 percent of computers in Vietnam are equipped with anti-virus software capable of automatically updating and support from the manufacturer,” said Vu Ngoc Son, vice president in charge of Anti-Malware at Bkav.