Hanoi (VNA) - ▨The Vietnam ICT Press Club and the National Cybersecurity Association (NCA) organised a seminar on ransomware prevention and control in Hanoi on April 5.

Statistics show that since the beginning of this year, there have been more than 13,750 cyberattacks on information systems in Vietnam. In the first three months of this year alone, the number stood at 2,323. Pham Thai Son, Deputy Director of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) under the Authority of Information Security, the Ministry of Information and Communications, said in the first quarter, his unit recorded more than 13,000 ransomware-related issues, warning that ransomware attacks would continue to pose problems in the time ahead.

Many Vietnamese businesses such as VNDIRECT and PVOIL have reported dealing with pervasive ransomware attacks over the past time, according to the official, adding that competent forces have coordinated with experts to help them handle such problems. The recent and continuous ransomware attacks on organisations and enterprises have triggered concern among many competent agencies. Organisations would face more attacks in the coming time, said Vu Ngoc Son, Vietnam National Cyber Security Technology Corporation (NSC)’s Technology Director, pointing to major steps by criminals in ransom outbreaks, including searching for the target, intrusion, encryption, cleanup, blackmail, money laundering, and repeat. At the seminar, Lieutenant Colonel Le Xuan Thuy, Director of the National Centre for Cyber Security under the Ministry of Public Security’s Department of Cybersecurity and High-Tech Crime Prevention (A05), said late reporting and hasty responses by victims make it hard for competent forces to trace incidents, even paving the way for future attacks. Given this, Son suggested businesses that have been attacked to follow the steps of first aid, review, recovery and lesson drawing.

He emphasised that traditional protection solutions such as anti-virus software, firewalls, and basic network security solutions are no longer suitable, adding attention should be paid equally to monitoring, prevention and response. Pham Thai Son shared some countermeasures like ensuring regular data backup, maintaining monitoring measures, developing a pool of professional personnel, reviewing latest attacks, and giving early and constant warnings.

In this regard, Thuy said businesses and organisations should collect and store enough system logs, work out backup and troubleshooting plans, and perform network security monitoring. Once the attack is detected, they need to isolate the affected equipment, protect data related to the incident in parallel with system recovery to determine the cause, and report it to competent agencies. Spokesman of the Ministry of Public Security Lieutenant General To An Xo said at the Government’s regular press conference on April 3 that more than 20 million cyberattack alerts were issued in the first quarter of 2024, up 33% year-on-year. In March alone, there were over 7 million warnings, rising 6% from the previous month. The network systems of many agencies, organisations and enterprises were attacked, with data stolen, interfaces changed and management rights usurped, Xo said, stressing confidential databases and tens of Gigabytes in size were involved in data breaches during the three-month period. Meanwhile, 377 people were arrested for suspected involvement in 605 online scams, siphoning some 100 billion VND (over 4 million USD) from their victims. The Ministry of Public Security recommended agencies, organisations and businesses to improve cybersecurity, and people to join efforts in reporting crimes as well as staying prudent so as to avoid being tricked./.