An expert from the National Cyber Security Centre is presenting online scams

“The most popular scamming trick on the cyberspace lately has been calls via social network to take over victims’ personal account and fake messages to steal sensitive bank account information. Even though these tricks have been warned, many citizens still fall for them as the fraudulences are rather sly”, stressed Deputy Director of the HCMC Department of Information and Communications Vo Minh Thanh in the recent event ‘Risk Warning and Cyber Fraudulence Prevention’, held by Vietnam Information Security Association (VNISA).

Expert of Internet of Things Security Le Pham Thien Hong An, one infamous scamming method now is for hackers to fake Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs) to send brand name messages to mobile phone users via switching between the 4G to 2G mode. This means those criminals have detected and taken advantage of vulnerabilities in the current telecoms infrastructure to appropriate property.

Expert Ngo Minh Hieu from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) warned about an even more serious trick of using Deepfake video technology to record motions and voices of victims for fraudulent purposes, leading to various people losing money. It is predicted that in the future this AI-based trick will be upgraded to be more cunning.

In the latest Vietnam Security Summit 2023, held in HCMC, Deputy Director Nguyen Van Giang of the Cyber Security and Hi-tech Crime Prevention (under the Public Security Ministry) stated that skillful cyber criminals can take advantage of security vulnerabilities in hardware platforms, core services, and operation systems to take control and steal confidential data of organizations. The easiest targets would be operation systems in servers, virtualization platforms, protocols to support IoT connections of monitoring cameras and other smart devices in a house.

Chairman Ngo Vi Dong of VNISA – Southern Branch agreed that cyber scams have become more cunning, so individuals and businesses should actively protect themselves. In 2023, VNISA – Southern Branch is developing a strong action plan as to information security.

In Vietnam Security Summit 2023, Deputy Head of the Information Security Authority Tran Dang Khoa (under the Information and Communications Ministry) hoped that the Summit can be one prestigious forum for experts in the field, policy makers, technology solution providers to discuss the latest trends in information security. The platform to support digital investigation introduced in the event was a means for members of the network to share necessary data on cyber incidents and their handling measures, on security vulnerabilities, cyber attacks.

“Personal data are the core to form the databases of the Government as well as businesses. Therefore, these data are considered an invaluable resource for organizations and individuals to collect and use. While correct legal uses bring back huge values, illegal acts on them to infringe upon the national security, social order and security lead to severe consequences” stressed Deputy Director Nguyen Van Giang.

IT experts informed that damages from data and information leaks are immeasurable. Reports of the Information and Communications Ministry reveal that in 2022, the revenues from cyber information security reached VND4.83 trillion (US$205.6 million) but the estimated loss came to VND21.2 trillion ($902.5 million), and the average expense to handle information leaks, stolen data was $15.4 million per case.

Source: SGGP