The Information Security Index of Viet Nam 2015 (VNISA Index 2015)- a Korean designed index to grade a nation's cyber security capacity- increased from an average of 39 per cent last year to 46.4 per cent among Vietnamese agencies early this year.

The Viet Nam Information Security Association (VNISA) announced the index results at this year's Viet Nam Information Security Day in Ha Noi early this week, organised by the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Ministry of Education and Training, and Viet Nam Computer Emergency Response Team.

Though Viet Nam's score was lower than Korea's 60 per cent, and lower than the index benchmark of 50 per cent, its growth showed that agencies, organisations and enterprises had focused more on information security in the past year.

VNISA Deputy Chairman Vu Quoc Thanh said that the past two years were a turning point for the global information security sector, and in Viet Nam in particular. Just last month, he added, the Vietnamese National Assembly passed a law on information security.

Thanh warned attendees that the world faced increasing information insecurity in regards to digital sovereignty and cyber warfare, which had resulted in devastating attacks in the last few years.

In response to such growing threats, the deputy minister of information and communications, Nguyen Thanh Hung, pointed out four shortcomings in the country's information security sector that he hopes of seeing improvement.

Firstly, he said awareness about information security work remained weak, and that many Vietnamese agencies and enterprises had not applied even minimum safety measures.

Secondly, the legal system and national technical standards on information security are insufficient. Sectors and agencies showed limited co-operation. Lastly, according to international organisations' evaluations, Viet Nam has a high risk of spreading viruses and malware.

The deputy minister said the problems put the country's future at risk since its image and confidence in the digital world was significantly damaged.

To solve these weaknesses, Hung recommended strengthening awareness among agencies, organisations and people; promptly completing a legal framework for information security activities; urging agencies to co-ordinate, boost research and conduct safety drills.

At the conference, several awards were handed out. Certificates of merit were awarded to six university students that performed well at the 2015 Cyber Sea Games in Indonesia and the two winning teams of the 2015 Students and Information Security Contest, HCM City's University of Information Technology and Ha Noi's University of Engineering and Technology.

VNS