Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam’s cybersecurity situation has reported many successes in 2022, according to Tran Dang Khoa, Deputy Director of the Authority of Informati🔥on Security under the Ministry of Information and Communications.

Khoa said that this year, his agency has directly prevented 2,328 scam websites, including 1,342 online sites and 986 websites and network addresses with illegal content. The action has contributed to protecting nearly 4 million people, equivalent to 6% of the Internet users. In addition, authorities also handled 76 websites that spread malicious codes and blocked their connections to 915 Botnet control server addresses. 2022 is also the fourth consecutive year of a sharp decrease in the number of Vietnamese Botnet IP addresses. Currently, Vietnam's monthly average number of Botnet IP addresses has dropped to less than 500,000. According to Khoa, this is a positive result thanks to the ministry’s implementation of an annual campaign on cleaning up malicious codes on the cyberspace. The efforts have drawn the participation of a large number of agencies, organisations, and businesses nationwide. The new feature of this year’s campaign is to find and uproot malicious codes and the websites that are spreading them. As many as 76 websites have been wiped from cyberspace this year, Khoa stressed. In 2022, the ministry presided over and coordinated with agencies and organisations to hold three national-scale drills to ensure cyber and information security. It also coordinated with the Ministry of Science and Technology to issue five national technical standards on information security. In August 2022, the Government issued a national cybersecurity strategy by 2025 with a vision to 2030, showing the determination and joint efforts of the Government, agencies, organisations and the community to ensure cyber security and safety. Under the strategy, the Government targets to maintain Vietnam's ranking on global cybersecurity index from 25th-30th by 2025. However, besides the "silver linings", there are still risks and threats to information security in Vietnam. Since the beginning of 2022, the Authority of Information Security has handled 11,213 cyberattacks that damaged information systems in the country. This figure represents a year-on-year rise of 44.2%. According to Khoa, this hike does not represent threats and risks, because these are the attacks that have been detected and handled. However, he pointed to the fact that despite warnings about cyberattacks and weaknesses from the authorities, many enterprises have not yet paid due attention to updating software patches to reduce risks. "This is a matter of awareness and responsibility, I hope that agencies, organisations and businesses change gradually," stressed Khoa. In addition, online fraud in cyberspace has become more common in recent times. According to statistics of the Authority of Information Security, online frauds in recent years are mainly brand counterfeiting, accounting for 72.6% and appropriation of online accounts, more than 11%. Other forms such as lottery, sweepstake or prize-draw fraud, online jobs, and loan applications make up the rest. Therefore, one of the main goals of the ministry in 2022 is to protect Internet users. To ensure network information security, the ministry said it will strengthen scanning the information superhighway in Vietnamese cyberspace. It will continue to evaluate and analyse statistics, and promote warnings while urging a review of vulnerabilities and signs of cyber-attacks to State agencies, information security units, financial institutions, and banks. According to the National Cyber Security Centre, about 10,000 computer users in Vietnam are using unsafe operating systems, and nearly 3,000 internet protocol (IP) addresses have been linked with data leaks. It noted anti-malware software is available free of charge on the national cyberspace portal, //khonggianmang.vn, enabling all individuals, organisations, and businesses to examine weaknesses in their browsers and operating systems./.