VietNamNet Bridge - The large-scale cyberattacks at the two most important airports in Vietnam – Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat – showed flaws in the industry and may even have long-term negative impact on other business sectors, including the banking sector. 

Only three days after the accident did Vietnam Airlines, on August 1, announce the recovery of its official website. 

Can hackers intervene to threaten flight safety? According to Nguyen Van Thang, deputy general director of the Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation (VATM), there are two independent computer systems

The system for corporate governance has an internet connection, but the air traffic system does not uses internet connection, but uses air traffic waves. As for air traffic wave system, there are very strict regulations for operators to follow.

“We now follow ICAO’s (International Civil Aviation Organization) flight control standards and we can say for sure hackers cannot attack the flight control system,” he said. 

Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Nhat on August 1 said the ministry conveved a meeting with departments to discuss the solutions to prevent accidents.

The large-scale cyberattacks at the two most important airports in Vietnam – Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat – showed flaws in the industry and may even have long-term negative impact on other business sectors, including the banking sector.

“We are joining forces with the Ministry of Public Security to upgrade the information system of the aviation sector to ensure safety,” Nhat said.

Soon after Vietnam Airlines’ information system was attacked on July 29, the State Bank (SBV) sent a dispatch to credit institutions and intermediary payment institutions, warning that hackers may attack Vietnam’s important information systems.

Le Manh Hung, head of SBV’s Information Technology Agency, said the central bank gave the warning to remind commercial banks to heighten security awareness and report any troubles to SBV immediately for help.

Vietcombank and Techcombank, the two loyal partners of Vietnam Airlines, immediately released notices about the cyberattack.

Vietcombank said the attack on July 29 was a ‘warning’, and it is possible that hackers would continue attacking other systems. Vietcombank has been applying measures to supervise cardholders’ transactions so as to timely discover, prevent and warn them about abnormal transactions.

Meanwhile, Techcombank has decided to halt the two sale promotion programs related to Vietnam Airlines. 

A senior executive of Techcombank said the majority of Techcombank’s Visa international cardholders have been applying 3D Security app to receive one-time password (OTP) for payment transactions via the internet. Therefore, they are safe.

However, the bank said risks still exist for the clients who made online payment transactions with Vietnam Airlines once hackers can use some information they collected from the cyberattacks (card number, expiry dates…) to conduct counterfeit transactions on the payment websites with no 3D Security.

Tien Phong