In particular, an increase in ransomware attacks has been noted, after a Vietnamese securities company was attacked with this type of malicious code, forcing it to pay the hacker to recover the data, Le Van Tuan said.

According to the director of the Information Security Department of the Ministry of Information and Communications, hackers were previously less interested in the Vietnamese market, but since they now know that companies can pay to regain access to devices and files, the risk of being attacked is higher.

In addition to cyber-attacks, warned the specialist quoted by the English-language Vietnam News, these sectors also face data leaks, primarily financial data, which are highly valuable and hackers really want to exploit them.

Van Tuan regretted, however, that information security awareness and the implementation of information security work are not at the level needed to face the risks.

The amount of money invested in information security should represent around 10% of the total investment in information technology, he estimated.

In Vietnam, one of the countries with the highest level of Internet access in the world with more than 78 million users, there are currently around 130 information security companies operating, which have more than 3,800 employees.

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