Hanoi (VNA) – Thefreshly-passed Law on Cyber Security will not hinder activities of people andbusinesses, affirmed Major General Nguyen Minh Duc, Director of the Instituteof Police Science under the People’s Police Academy.

Discussion regulations in the law that require user data and important datarelated to national security to be stored in the country, and all enterprisesdoing business in cyberspace related to Vietnam to establishheadquarters and representative offices in Vietnam, the officer said they are feasibleand in line with domestic law and international practices. The regulationsneither run counter to treaties to which Vietnam is a party nor obstructbusinesses’ operations.

According to Duc, 18 countries in the world have set forth requirements for storageof important data within their territories. They are the US, Canada, Russia,France, Germany, China,  Australia,Indonesia, Greece, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Turkey, Venezuela,Colombia, Argentina and Brazil.

Thus, Vietnam is not the first country having this regulation, he noted.

Vietnam’s commitments to WTO agreements such as the General Agreement onTariffs and Trade 1994 (GATT 1994), the General Agreement on Trade in Services(GATS) and the Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual PropertyRights (TRIPS), as well as the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-PacificPartnership (CPTPP) also have regulations on security exceptions that allow therespect for and protection of national security at the highest level.

Regarding the establishment of representative offices, the police general said severalVietnamese laws, including the 2005 Commercial Law and the 2017 Foreign TradeManagement Law and their guiding documents, stipulate that all foreigncountries’ trade promotion organisations must open representative offices inVietnam.

Google has set up some 70 representative offices and Facebook 80 representativeoffices in countries around the world. In Southeast Asia, they have openedrepresentative offices in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

“If these businesses’ operations are hindered and affected by the regulation,it is certain that they will not open that many representatives in countriesworldwide,” he stressed, adding that the regulation will also help create afair business environment, as domestic enterprises are subject to many legalregulations from business registration to operation while foreign firms arenot.

In addition, the regulation does not require storage of all data related toVietnam and platform data on cyber space. It only targets certain types of datarelated to personal secrets in special cases and data related to nationalsecurity as they are the assets of citizens and the nation that need to bemanaged and protected, Duc said.

Besides, the regulation is not applied to all agencies and organisationsoperating on Vietnam’s cyber space but only those providing services that canbe used to threaten or affect national security.

In reality, the lack of management of service users’ data and importantnational data has been affecting national interests and security, the generalstated.

At present, hostile forces, reactionary organisations and criminals are increasingthe use of cyber space to harm national security, social order and safety whileVietnam’s competent agencies face a lot of difficulties in investigating,verifying, tracing and handling violations because all data are stored overseas.

Furthermore, foreign businesses often show little goodwill and cooperation inproviding related information, thus hindering the handling of law violations.

Users’ data is an asset with unlimited usage value and an input of manyeconomic activities that bring in high profits. While foreign agencies andorganisations earn thousands of billions of dong each year from Vietnameseusers’ data, the country suffers loss of tax revenue.

Therefore, the regulation on data storage and establishment of representativeoffices will contribute to addressing these problems, he noted.

Regarding the concern that personal information will be leaked due to thestipulation that competent agencies must provide users’ information to thecyber security force of the Ministry of Public Security when receiving awritten request, Major General Duc affirmed that users’ information will not berevealed.

Since their establishment, thespecialised force of the Ministry of Public Security has managed data ofcitizens’ residence, identity and migration and many other fields, but no casesof information leakage have been recorded so far.

The absolute guaranteeing of citizens’ personal information is both a responsibilityand legal obligation of the force, he said, stressing that if the data is out,they will be strictly punished under the law.

About the current cyber security situation in Vietnam, the general cited areport by the Vietnam Computer Emergency Response Team (VNCERT) under theMinistry of Information and Communications which said in 2017, informationsystems in the country were hit by 15,000 cyber-attacks, including 3,000Phishing, 6,500 Malware and 4,500 Deface attacks.

Last year, losses caused by computer viruses to Vietnamese users amounted to arecord high of 12.3 trillion VND (540 million USD). In the first five months ofthis year, 4,035 cyber-attacks were recorded in Vietnam.

With around 637,400 computers controlled by bonnets, Vietnam was ranked fourthamong the top 10 worst botnet countries.

“Cyber-attacks can only be prevented effectively if there is a detailed andclear legal system to facilitate the implementation of legal measures andinternational cooperation,” he concluded.

The Law on Cyber Security wasapproved by the National Assembly on June 12 with 86.86 percent of votes.

It has seven chapters and 43articles, regulating activities to protect national security and ensure socialorder and safety on cyberspace, and responsibilities of agencies, organisationsand individuals concerned.-VNA