Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam recorded 2,915 cyber attacks in the first six months of2021, an increase of 898 compared with the same period last year.

Accordingto the Vietnam National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), 718 cyber attacks werereported in June alone.

Expertsattributed the rise in the incidents to the COVID-19 pandemic which has becomemore complicated. Criminals take advantage of the society’s attention to thepandemic to increase cyber attacks, spread malicious codes and scams to destroyand steal information of users as well as organisations and businesses, theysaid.

Earlieron May 26, Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung issuedDirective No 22/CT-BTTT on strengthening the prevention and combat ofviolations and crimes on the Internet

TheMinister also requested the sector to continue to effectively implement thePrime Minister’s Directive No 14/CT-TTg issued on June 7, 2019 on enhancingsafety measures on cybersecurity which aims to improve Vietnam's rankings.

Vietnamjumped 25 places in two years to rank 25th out of 194 countries and territoriesworldwide in the Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) in 2020, according to areport released recently by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

Accordingto the report, Vietnam ranked seventh in the Asia-Pacific region andfourth among ASEAN countries.

Thecountry posted a score of 94.59 with improved scores in all five reviewedpillars. The country’s efforts to build long-term development projects inpersonnel for cybersecurity were recognised, along with achievements in thecreating of an ecosystem for safe ‘Made in Vietnam’ products and cybersecurity.

Vietnamsurpassed Thailand to clinch the fourth spot in ASEAN after Singapore, Malaysiaand Indonesia.

Theleading countries in the Asia-Pacific region are the Republic of Korea andJapan both with 98.52 points./.