Vietnam’s economic losses due to computer viruses in 2017 amounted to $540 million

According to a recent announcement by BKAV Internet security company, Vietnamese citizens lost about 12.3 trillion Vietnamese dong (about 540 million U.S. dollars) in 2017 due to computer viruses.

BKAV said: “Vietnam is expected to continue to face malware attacks, such as ransomware and malware that includes cryptographic tools.” This result is calculated from the December BKAV cyber security assessment. BKAV said Vietnam has reached a record level of economic losses due to computer viruses. Of course, the economic losses caused by economic big nations such as the United States, China, Japan, and Germany each year may reach 200 billion U.S. dollars.

In 2017, cybersecurity in Vietnam has focused mainly on the growing attacks on IoT devices, fake news, and malware that includes encryption-mining tools. In particular, due to the soaring global prices of cryptocurrencies this year. This prompted hackers to increase their computer network attacks, turning it into an encryption mining tool. There are two popular attacks, including exploiting website vulnerabilities and social networks to spread computer viruses.

Hackers often choose to have a large number of users’ websites to install malware that includes an encryption mining tool, and malware will be activated when people visit the site.

As more than 40% of websites in Vietnam are vulnerable to security breaches, they will be targeted by hackers to distribute malware that includes cryptographic mining tools. In addition, hackers also spread computer viruses over social networks. On the 19th of last month, malware began to spread among Facebook users in Vietnam.

According to BKAV statistics, about 23,000 computers in southern Vietnam are affected by malware. BKAV pointed out that the trend of computer viruses spread through Facebook, email, operating system vulnerabilities or USB devices will be strengthened in the future.

Among them, ransomware became one of the major threats to Vietnam’s network security in 2017. Of course, WannaCry, of course, is the most prominent player, and it spread to more than 90 countries in just a few hours. In Vietnam, more than 1900 computers were infected, of which about 52% had security holes.

On the other hand, passwords have always been widely used authentication solutions. However, computer users in Vietnam do not seem to be aware of their importance.

In recent years, some bank accounts in Vietnam have been hijacked, most of them are caused by the victim clicking on an unknown source link or using the same password for different accounts. According to BKAV statistics, as many as 55% of Vietnamese computer users use the same password for different online services.

In addition, IoT devices (such as routers and webcams) are targeted by hackers in 2017. With the development of IoT devices, this will surely become one of the major aspects involved in network security in Vietnam.

Experts at BKAV predict that in addition to malware creating botnets for cryptocurrency mining, hackers will also attack cryptocurrency trading halls in 2018. At the moment, most of the trading floors are not guaranteed by the government, which means investors in this sector are at risk at all times from economic losses.

Reference: Bkav