Vietnam must step up online security ifit wants to fully integrate into the global internet community,attendants heard at a seminar entitled “Transforming into globalstandards of security networking and cloud computing” in Hanoi onApril 27.

Manish Goel, chairman of Online Trust Alliance (OTA), said Vietnamhad a vibrant information and telecommunications market comprising alarge number of young and literate internet users.

“However, [the country] is also exposed to the threats of viruses,phising, internet fraud, spam and poor email deliverability. Lack ofregulations could harm businesses’ online reputation,” Manish said.

OTA statistics showed that Vietnam ranked fourth in Asia in terms ofspam after India, the Republic of Korea and mainland China.

He added that online fraud would impact negatively on the country.

The meeting was OTA’s first in Vietnam. Manish said he hoped thecountry would adopt OTA applications and management solutions.

“We look at the industry as a whole but focus on government agencies,banks, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and telecoms companies whichare potential customers,” he said.

He said security networking is a simple solution that brought hugebenefits. Vietnam can protect its global reputation and become a“best practice” country which would bring many benefits, he added.

“We will demonstrate practices that are adopted in other parts of theworld to the Vietnamese people and represents the country abroad,” headded.

Attendants heard that Vietnam as a developing country had huge ITpotential.

Nguyen Tien Quan from Vicom Security Company said it was vital tofight fraud in online trading and e-payment services.

“If security firms and banks do not apply [security] solutions,customers will leave their services,” Quan said.

He added that prevention was better than cure.

“The issues of spam, viruses and internet fraud are quite common inVietnam , he said./.