VietNamNet Bridge – Analysts believe that new domestic anti-virus products will not be able to compete with the existing products on the market, even if domestic firms can get the support from the State.

Vietnam plans to encourage domestic anti-virus products

The draft law on digital information security says that the watchdog agency would give stronger support to encourage domestic firms to develop the information security products. These could be the products to fight viruses, prevent spam and online attacks and discover dangers.

According to Vu Quoc Khanh, Director of VNCERT (Vietnam Computer Emergency Response Team), in order to ensure the information security and protect the national digital sovereignty, Vietnam-made information security products must account for at least 50 percent of the total products.

Therefore, Khanh said, it is necessary for the government to apply reasonable policies with tax incentives to encourage domestic firms to develop the products.

The domestic anti-virus software market now witnesses the stiff competition of the well-known foreign brands Norton Antivirus, Kaspersky, Mc Afee, Trend Micro, Bit Defender, Aviram and two domestic brands BKAV and CMC.

After a long absence, D32, a domestic software product developed by Truong Minh Nhat Quang from the Can Tho University, which came out at the same time with BKAV, has reappeared on the market. The author has promised to introduce a new version which would be commercialized.

To date, D32 version 2009 has not caught any considerable attention from the public. Meanwhile, D2 anti-virus 2013 with Metro interface would be launched in the first quarter of the year.

In 2010, a big information technology firm in Vietnam announced it began developing an anti-virus product named Lock PC, but the project then died prematurely.

According to BKAV, the anti-virus software market was most bustling 3-4 years ago, when a lot of well-known names in the world made their presence in Vietnam. However, only some software products have been existing, while others have been refused by users, who suffered the big errors caused by the products.

Also according to BKAV, less than 50 percent of the existing computers have been installed with licensed anti-virus software products.

It’ll take 10 years at least to make a new anti-virus product

On the domestic market, two Vietnamese, CMC and BKAV, are competing with foreign giants. In the competition, domestic enterprises are inferior to the foreign colleagues, at least in terms of quantity.

Vu Quoc Thanh, Secretary General of the Vietnam Information Security Association, has noted that the world’s information security firms have made big leaps in the field, and that he cannot see many opportunities for Vietnam to make out new competitive anti-virus products.

“I think if domestic firms want to join the information security sector, they would focus on developing the software products to prevent spam messages and emails,” Thanh said.

A senior executive of BKAV said that it takes at least 10 years to develop an anti-virus product; therefore, domestic firms need to prepare for a “long term battle” which would consume a lot of time and big money.

Meanwhile, domestic firms do not feel encouraged enough to make investments in such a risky field. Vietnamese don’t want to spend money to use copyrighted software. Only if the State stipulates that businesses must pay for the software products they use, will information security firms have the motive force to develop anti-virus products.

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