According to the Viet Nam Computer Emergency Response Team, 64 per cent of agencies were unable to estimate financial losses resulting from attacks. — Photo infosecurity-magazine.com

The research, carried out from October 2013 to February 2014 by BKAVs WebScan machines, checked website security in more than 25 countries.

According to BKAV, while 40 per cent of websites in Viet Nam have security loopholes, the figure in Asian countries is 36 per cent, European countries are15 per cent, while American and African countries are at 5 per cent and 33 per cent, respectively.

Of note, the firm named several types of popular security loopholes, including XXS, SQL, Injection, and Directory Listings.

"This is the main cause of leaking information from personal credit cards, as well as corporate internal data, " said Ngo Tuan Anh, the deputy director of the firms Internet security division.

Tuan Anh said even top international financial organizations, such as Visa, Nasdaq and Dow Jones, had been the victims of attacks.

Tuan urged government agencies and computer users to strengthen internet and website security to reduce potential risks.

"It is necessary to set aside from 5 per cent to 10 per cent of budgets for internet security in each IT project " Tuan added.

Meanwhile, according to the Viet Nam Computer Emergency Response Team, 64 per cent of agencies were unable to estimate financial losses resulting from attacks, he said.

In addition, 78 out of 100 websites with the government domain "gov.vn" had been reported to have "seriously" poor security systems.

Also, BKAV warned last month, spyware, malware and DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks will continue to pose major risks in 2014.

In 2013, hackers took advantage of security loopholes in Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint and inserted spyware to monitor users activities on computers. — VNS