At the Security Summit 2020, Colonel Nguyen Ngoc Cuong from the Cyber Security and High-tech Crime Prevention Department under the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) provided noteworthy information about the cybersecurity situation in Vietnam.

Cuong said cyberattacks in Vietnam in 2020 have become increasingly complicated with sophisticated tricks. Cybercriminals now use various innovative malware targeting agencies, organizations and businesses.

MPS has discovered that 2,600 information portals and ‘.vn’ domain names have been attacked so far this year.

The actions of counterfeiting the information portals of the State and MPS to steal data and deceive people to appropriate properties occur regularly, adversely affecting the reputation of the police. Even MPS’s website has been counterfeited.

In the third quarter alone, 937 Vietnam’s websites and information portals were attacked by hackers, who changed the interfaces or inserted files, an increase of 28 percent compared with the same period last year. This included 193 websites put under management of state agencies.

Many websties, blogs and fanpages and Facebook accounts have been found continuously publishing misleading information and posts with bad content, deforming the current situation about the fight against Covid-19 in Vietnam.

In Q3 alone, there were 1,902 articles, informational pieces and videos with bad content, Including wrong information about the number of infections and fatalities, which caused confusion among the public.

MPS has found 540 phishing cases in 56 localities so far this year. The activities of impersonating law enforcement agencies to deceive people to appropriate assets are also on the rise.

In most cases, scammers impersonate law enforcement agencies, calling victims and telling them to transfer money to the accounts given by the scammers.

MPS has also found the presence of weapons, explosives, supporting tools, drugs, addictive substances, fake papers and certificate trafficking rings.

In addition, depraved cultural products have been found disseminated and distributed through secret groups on Zalo, Facebook and Twitter.

The number of cybercriminals in e-payment, finance and banking continues to increase. The main method of this crime is exploiting sale promotion programs to send messages containing counterfeit links. In addition, they also impersonate bank staff, report errors, and ask customers to provide passwords and OTP codes.

Many scammers even create apps to call for donations for flood victims and needy people. Donors are asked to remit money into certain bank accounts and appropriate the money.

Cuong said there are many cybersecurity issues that Vietnam needs to respond to in 2021. He put emphasis on the proliferation of APTs (Advanced Persistent Threat) targeting the data of agencies, large organizations and enterprises, especially in the financial and banking sector. 

Trong Dat

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