Nearly 63,000 new viruses appeared last year, infecting 61.7 million computers. — Photo vneconomy.vn

HCM CITY (Biz Hub) — Computer viruses caused a loss of VND8.7 trillion (US$400 million) in Viet Nam last year compared to VND8.5 trillion in 2014, the BKAV Technology Group revealed in its latest network security survey released last month.

Nearly 63,000 new viruses appeared last year, infecting 61.7 million computers.

The losses caused by computer viruses are calculated based on users' incomes and their computers' downtime.

On average, a computer user in Viet Nam lost VND1.25 million ($55) and nearly 7 million computers were seriously affected, the survey said.

USBs were the worst hit resource, with 83 per cent of survey participants saying their USBs were infected at least once last year compared to 85 per cent in 2014.

Over 9.1 million computers were infected by viruses through USB, the most common being the W32 UsbFakeDrive virus.

Half the respondents complained about getting spam messages every day, a rise in numbers despite efforts to crack down by the Government and mobile service providers.

However, the huge benefits many derived from spam meant the situation could not be fully addressed, and around 14 million spam messages were sent to mobile users every day.

Around 93 per cent of Facebook users too said they often got spam messages, sexual content or harmful links (malware).

Every month, BKAV said, 1,000 fake accounts were created to steal Facebook users' banking details.

The survey indicated one good thing: that 58 per cent of mobile users paid attention to security when they wanted to download software, a significant increase from the 13 per cent in 2014.

But nearly 40 per cent continued to ignore this.

The survey also recognised that users' security awareness had improved, with 48 per cent of participants only opening a file after checking with senders, 74 per cent often locking their computers, and the number of those with strong passwords (a combination of digits, letters, special characters) growing.

Besides, hackers successfully attacked over 5,200 websites belonging to both the Government and private organisations and businesses.

In 2016 ransomware (stealing database to blackmail) and adware (illegal advertisement software) are expected to proliferate because of the huge attendant profits.

Spyware for stealing information and DDoS (service denial) are also likely to increase.

"Political conflicts and huge profits will breed computer viruses in 2016," Ngo Tuan Anh, BKAV's deputy chairman in charge of network security, warned. — VNS