Vietnam Information Security: 'Even if the cow is lost, don't bother building a barn'

On the afternoon of September 27, 2016, in Hanoi, the Vietnam IT Journalists Club organized a seminar on "Information security and threats to the economy".

Speaking at the opening of the seminar, Mr. Nguyen Viet Phu, Chairman of the Vietnam IT Journalists Club, said: “Recently, Vietnam has witnessed a series of targeted attacks on units. The harm caused by incomplete and even contradictory information on news sites is difficult to measure. Today's seminar will help find a common voice in the issue of information security.”

In fact, information insecurity is a danger and threat to organizations, individuals, communities and the economy.

Statistics from the Vietnam Computer Emergency Response Team (VNCERT) show that in the first half of 2016 alone, the total number of cyber security incidents recorded by VNCERT was 127,630 incidents, more than 4 times the total number of cyber security incidents recorded by the Center in the whole of 2015 and nearly 6.5 times the number of incidents in the whole of 2014.

Overview of the Discussion on the afternoon of September 27, 2016 in Hanoi. Photo: BM

Discussing this situation, Mr. Do Vu Anh, Member of the Board of Members of Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) shared: “Many of our systems do not pay much attention to ensuring information security when designing the system. Many addresses do not have firewalls. When attacked, we only worry about building a barn after the cows are gone.”

Sharing a higher level of concern, Mr. Trieu Tran Duc, General Director of CMC Infosec said: “The situation is very bad in Vietnam, most of the IT systems can be hacked. Our awareness is very poor, we don’t close the barn door after the horse is lost. The IT teams of many state agencies are very brave, a few days after the system is attacked, it still acts like normal.”

Sharing the same view, Mr. Tong Viet Trung, Deputy General Director of Viettel also said: “There are still many basic errors. You don’t need to be a very good hacker, just a normal level using common techniques on the Internet can access the system. This is a big concern.”

Meanwhile, “in terms of leadership, there are three states of awareness: Indifference, considering it not our business; This matter is too complicated, I probably have nothing to do with it, let the big guys take care of it; Too complicated, let's close the gate. All three are dangerous states,” Mr. Tong Viet Trung added.

From the perspective of many years of research on the current state of information security in Vietnam, Mr. Ngo Tuan Anh, Vice President of Bkav, pointed out some startling figures: “Bkav's research from 2014 showed that 40% of website systems in Vietnam have vulnerabilities. For every 10 online websites, 1 website can be attacked by hackers, including many important websites such as those of government agencies (.gov.vn). On average, 300 websites in Vietnam are attacked every month. A recent preliminary survey of more than 2,000 websites, including official and subdomains of .gov.vn websites, showed that more than 10% are likely to be hacked. In comparison, only about 10% of the websites that were hacked were made public.”

“I am really concerned about the level of information security of IT systems in Vietnam, including national critical systems,” Mr. Nguyen Trung Chinh, Chairman of CMC Group expressed his concern, and shared positive news that “recently, a number of enterprises, institutes and schools have agreed to establish an alliance to prevent malware and ensure information security, so that when needed, it can be an effective address to help relevant agencies and units have effective ways to handle and prevent”.

Directly recording the opinions from the beginning to the end of the Discussion, Dr. Mai Liem Truc, former Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (now the Ministry of Information and Communications) expressed his feelings: “The more I listen, the more confused I feel. The recent attack on the Airport Cluster and Vietnam Airlines has more benefits than harms because it has caused a great alarm in the community. But unfortunately, it heats up and then cools down quickly. Vietnamese hackers are good but the number is small, only 400 people met during Tet, while China had 17,000 people.

I am confused by the way we work, not because of the weak security system. When IoT comes, life will change a lot. Past experiences have shown that Uber, Facebook, and OTT will make society completely different. But if we keep being scattered and each person has their own opinion, it is very worrying.”