The fourth industrial revolution which developed science and technology created a great opportunity for Viet Nam but also posed an immense threat to , heard a security conference.

This was important especially in the context of increasing and more complex cyber attacks.

The Department of Cyber Security (Ministry of Public Security) and Authority of Information Security (Ministry of Information and Communications) co-ordinated with IDG Viet Nam to organise the Security World 2017 with the theme “Information and Cyber Security in the fourth industrial evolution” on Tuesday.

Organised since 2007, this is the 11th time the national security conference and exhibition is taking place in Viet Nam.

According to the Viet Nam Computer Emergency Response Team (VNCERT), more than 134,000 cyber security incidents occurred last year, four times higher than that of 2015.

The result showed that network attacks and criminals using information technology and communications in Viet Nam had been increasing and become more serious than in the past.

There are more and more criminal violations in the safety of computer networks, banking and financial systems, e-commerce and telecommunications.

"Thousands of websites of our country are hacked, edited or inserted with content or malwares every year, of these, there are hundreds of pages with domain names “.gov.vn” of state agencies," said Hoang Phuoc Thuan, director of Ministry of Public Security’s Department of Cyber Security.

There were many factors that increase the risk of being attacked, such as the country’s telecommunications and information technology infrastructure that did not meet essential security requirements, he added.

Web portals, websites and information network systems had not been developed following uniform standards and lack of security testing, he said.

There were security flaws existing in both software and hardware and many agencies and organisations did not have policies ensuring network security, while majority of users were subjective, the director said.

In the context of increasing and more sophisticated cybercrime, Bui Van Nam, deputy minister of public security asked agencies, organisations, enterprises and people to raise awareness and knowledge in network security, actively seek effective network security solutions, while closely co-ordinating with the network security forces and foreign and multi-national corporations to handle when risks and incidents occur.

At the workshop, experts also shared and updated the latest trends of information security and advanced security solutions in order to support Vietnamese governments, organisations and businesses in strengthening security surveillance system and responding to increasingly complex and serious security threats. – VNS