Fourteen executives were conferred the coveted ASEAN CIO/CSO Awards in HCM City on Thursday, all of them Vietnamese. — Photo tienphong.vn
Fourteen executives were conferred the coveted ASEAN CIO/CSO Awards in HCM City on Thursday, all of them Vietnamese.
Half each are corporate executives and State officials.
The awards, given by IDG, look for and honour outstanding individuals who are responsible for information management and security to ensure business continuity, minimise business risks and maximise business opportunities at enterprises and governmental and civic organisations.
The awards have been given annually in Viet Nam since 2005.
On the same day IDG in collaboration with the CEO&CIO Club held a conference on issues concerning IT and information security and with the theme “The evolving role of CIO: Enhancing management efficiency and risk management.”
In a presentation, Le Thanh Tam, CEO of IDG ASEAN, spoke about the results of a survey on the role of CIOs at businesses.
“Around 27 per cent of enterprises think that using IT would make their business run more efficiently.”
Project management and introduction of new technologies are believed to be the two biggest benefits of IT, it found.
However, though 81 per cent said IT security is one of the most important aspects of their IT development strategy, 41 per cent spent less than 5 per cent of their IT budget on security.
“Only 5 per cent of enterprises are thinking about improving security,” Tam said.
Eighteen per cent actually want to cut their IT budgets while 28 per cent would like to “simplify” their IT applications.
“The role of IT in enterprises has not received enough attention.”
Demetris Booth, regional head of Cybersecurity Product Management & Evangelism (APJC), said: “Lack of cyber security restricts innovation in the digital era.”
Each enterprise should adopt their own digital risk strategy to counter and mitigate risks encountered by digital initiatives, he added.
Ngo Viet Khoi, head of Practech Co. Ltd’s security solutions division, said: “Security awareness should be enhanced among customers, business partners, end-users, employees, IT staff, and managers.
“Because people are the weak point in cyber security.”
The awards and summit, the only event of their kind in ASEAN, are organised together with the Viet Nam Government Information Security Committee, several ministries, and the HCM City government and supported by the Việt Nam Computer Emergency Response Team and National ICT Development Authority – Cambodia. — VNS