Vince Steckler, CEO of Avast software, speaks about the increased level of security risks and threat of cyberattacks in Viet Nam at a meeting in HCM City. — VNS Photo Courtesy of Avast

HCM CITY (Biz Hub) — The majority of internet-connected households in Việt Nam with a wireless router are at a high security risk, according to a recent study conducted of 500 households in the country by Avast Software, a maker of mobile and PC security software.

In a visit to HCM City on Thursday, Vince Steckler, CEO of Avast, said that "unsecured routers create an easy entry point for hackers to attack millions of Vietnamese home networks. Our research revealed that the majority of home routers in Việt Nam are not secure."

Cybercriminals could easily gain access to an individual's personal information, including financial information, user names and passwords, photos and browsing history, he said.

According to the survey, only one-third of Vietnamese strongly believe their home network is secure and 35 percent of respondents reported that they have fallen victims to hackers.

They reported that they were most concerned about loss of bank or financial information, theft of personal information, copying of their browsing history, and hacking of their photos.

Threat from free wifi

The risk of privacy loss and identity theft has increased in Việt Nam, where the number of smartphone and tablet users has risen sharply in recent years.

Vietnamese often prefer using free wifi in public places or connecting to a neighbour's wifi network.

Steckler said it was estimated that 78 percent of Vietnamese smartphones and tablet users, which prefer free internet access, are at risk of privacy loss and identity theft via public wifi network.

Only 11 percent use a virtual private network (VPN) to protect their mobile devices when accessing the internet.

The survey shows that 43 percent of wifi hotspots in HCM City and 15 percent of hotspots in Ha Noi are open.

More than 61 percent of wired households in Việt Nam have four or more devices connected to a wifi network.

The software maker's report found 81 percent of respondents would be uncomfortable if they found a neighbour or uninvited guest secretly logging onto their personal home wifi network.

About 53 percent of respondents reported that they had used a neighbour's wifi network without the neighbour's permission.

Steckler said that the chance a user would encounter malware in Việt Nam on mobile devices was high, at 45.9 percent, compared with the global average of 18 per cent.

The world has 1.9 million malware variants and 14,000 new samples detected per day found in Avast's database, he said.

Avast Software has 230 million users worldwide, with 2.5 million users in Việt Nam.

Free Avast for Business software will be available in Vietnamese in June.

The software offers services to protect small- and medium-size businesses from viruses and cyberattacks. — VNS