Internet users are, therefore, warned to upgrade their general knowledge on these dangerous activities to better protect themselves.

Monitoring a cyber-attack at a center for information security in Ho Chi Minh City. (Photo: SGGP)

Cyber-attacks at present do not merely aim at individuals but at businesses to steal sensitive information. In the first 6 months of 2022, functional agencies in Vietnam detected over 2 million such attacks to domestic websites, not to mention 300,000 discovered software pieces to steal account passwords of small and medium enterprises.

Director of Nam Truong Son Security Co. said that online threats are created from vulnerabilities on the side of end-users, developers, and website service operators.

Along with cyber-attacks are phishing activities. The Anti-Phishing System from Kaspersky was able to detect and stop more than 12 million harmful links in Southeast Asia so far. A half of cyber-attacks in the first quarter of 2022 aims at users in Vietnam, the Philippines, and Malaysia.

The most obvious negative consequence of online phishing is a repetition of dangerous messages sent to smart phone users related to their personal information and bank accounts.

Experts have warned that to fight against online scams, Internet users need to raise their awareness about the matter such as their ability to recognize phishing emails.

Protection software should be installed on each personal computer as well as email servers. Organizations and businesses are advised by VNCERT/CC to be well-prepared to respond to cyber-attacks by a combination of different methods, including frequent knowledge update on cyber security.

Other useful measures have been implemented by major organizations. At the beginning of this October, Vietinbank sent warning SMS to its customers about fraud messages using its name.

Several banks followed this lead to carry out similar actions to help the public raise their awareness about sophisticated and unexpected criminal activities.

Vietnam Computer Emergency Response Team/Coordination Center (VNCERT/CC under the Authority of Information Security – the Information and Communications Ministry) informed that it regularly updates fake domain names of famous banks like ACB, SCB, TPBank, VietinBank, VPBank, MSB on its websites as a way to aid bank users in this fight.

Source: SGGP