Cyber security will continue to be a ’hot topic’ this year, demanding the attention of technology experts.

According to statistics of the Information Security Department under the Ministry of Information and Communications, 95 per cent of issues related to information security are caused by human negligence.

Recently, passwords of more than 1.4 billion e-mail accounts in the world have been disclosed. The Viet Nam Computer Emergency Response Team (VNCERT) analysed and found some 438,000 accounts in Viet Nam, of which some 930 had the government domain name, “gov.vn”.

At a year-end meeting on information security-related issues last year, deputy minister of information and communications Nguyen Thanh Hung said the situation of information security would continue to be complicated in 2018.

Notably, hackers would use smarter technologies, including artificial intelligence. In addition to this, cyber attacks would become increasingly dangerous and more difficult to detect as hackers were likely to use advanced threats to paralyse national infrastructure, Hung said.

He also pointed out one of the main reasons for information insecurity was low levels of awareness.

The complexity of information technology depends on the variety of devices being used, with many users in organisations and businesses using personal devices, according to Hung.

If they do not have security solutions, the risk to their information will be implicit right in the mobile device itself.

Currently, with the development of technology and high speed of transmission lines, the number of internet users in the country has increased rapidly.

But users’ perception of information security is low. A majority of Vietnamese people do not have the habit of using software copyrights.

VNCERT director Nguyen Trong Duong said malicious software, malicious code and viruses that infiltrated computers were invisible to users.

He emphasised on raising awareness of users to detect infected devices, while equipping them with cyber-security knowledge, information technology skills and routines of scanning and upgrading software.

Last year, damages caused by computer viruses in Viet Nam were worth VND12.3 trillion (US$547 million), increasing from VND10.4 trillion in 2016.

Ngo Tuan Anh, vice president of BKAV technology group, said attacks on Internet of Things equipment or malicious codes of blackmailing or digging out virtual money were increasing both in number and sophistication.

Statistics also show that 55 per cent of users use the same passwords for many accounts, which risk password exposure.

Technology experts predict that all security network threats this year will stem from attacks on internet-connected devices.

Thus, besides raising awareness of users, enterprises and organisations need to apply security policies and technology.

Organisations and enterprises as well as individual computer users using the internet should restrict the disclosure of personal information via mobile phones, emails and internet services.

Organisations and businesses especially need to protect critical information and implement backup and recovery plans to secure website and email assets. — VNS