Cybersecurity is an area that receives much attention from press agencies, as questions related to ransomware attacks, online fraud, etc. account for 30% of the total number of questions sent to the Ministry of Information and Communications before the Ministry's regular press conference in April 2024.

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Deputy Minister Nguyen Thanh Lam chaired the regular press conference of April 2024 of the Ministry of Information and Communications. Photo: Chi Hieu

Informing the press at a press conference on the afternoon of April 8 in Hanoi chaired by Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Thanh Lam, Mr. Tran Nguyen Chung, Head of Information System Security Department, Department of Information Security (Ministry of Information and Communications) said that cyber attack campaigns, especially ransomware attacks, focus on agencies, organizations, and large enterprises that are providing services to many people and businesses; mainly in important fields such as securities, finance, banking, energy, telecommunications, etc.

Ransomware attacks often start from a security weakness of an agency or organization. After infiltrating the system, the attacker will "lie in wait" in the system and wait for the right moment to launch an attack, paralyze the system, encrypt all data of the organization or business and demand the victim to pay a ransom.

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According to Head of Information System Security Department (Information Security Department) Tran Nguyen Chung, many businesses and organizations in Vietnam have not paid enough attention and invested properly to protect information systems. Photo: Chi Hieu

Mr. Chung acknowledged that if agencies, organizations and businesses comply with legal regulations on network information security, conduct periodic inspections and assessments, monitor for early detection and prevention, and proactively hunt for vulnerabilities and weaknesses, the system can be quickly remediated when attacked, minimizing damage.

Cyber ​​attacks are inevitable, but organizations and businesses can be prepared. This readiness will help units promptly fix problems and quickly restore operations. Mr. Tran Nguyen Chung

Decree 85/2016 on ensuring information system security by level clearly states that information systems of state agencies as well as systems serving many people and businesses need to be classified and protected by level, from 1 to 5. Systems identified as level 3 or higher must have their information security periodically inspected and assessed annually.

In Decision 05/2017 on the system of emergency response plans to ensure national network information security, the Government directed agencies, organizations and enterprises to have incident response plans when attacked.

" Although it has been implemented, up to now, the level of investment as well as compliance activities are still not commensurate and do not meet requirements ," Mr. Tran Nguyen Chung commented.

In particular, recommending that agencies, organizations and enterprises nationwide carry out the tasks and requirements of the Prime Minister according to the timeline stated in Directive 09 in February and Official Dispatch 33 dated April 7, the representative of the Department of Information Security noted that units are interested in reviewing all information systems within their management scope.

Along with that, according to the representative of the Information Security Department, currently, agencies, organizations and businesses tend to hide information when encountering information security incidents or cyber attacks. This makes it difficult for authorities to warn, support remediation as well as draw necessary lessons.

"Agencies, organizations, and businesses need to comply with incident response reporting activities to competent authorities to receive support to overcome the problem, promptly warn on a large scale, and minimize damage to agencies and units," a representative of the Department of Information Security suggested.

Faced with the recent increase in ransomware attacks on organizations and businesses in Vietnam, the Department of Information Security has continuously issued warnings and requested agencies, organizations and businesses nationwide, especially those operating in the fields of finance, banking, securities, telecommunications, etc., to proactively review and deploy network information security for information systems under their management.

The Department of Information Security has also issued the 'Guideline for compliance with legal regulations and enhancing information system security at all levels' (Version 1.0), along with developing a 'Guideline for preventing and minimizing risks from ransomware attacks' for agencies, organizations and enterprises, aiming to ensure national cyberspace security. These are useful documents to help agencies and organizations smoothly implement information system security at all levels, meet the requirements, proactively prevent and protect the unit's important information systems from potential cyberattack risks.

Cyber ​​attacks increase sharply, Prime Minister requests to ensure the highest level of network information security . In the face of the sharp increase in cyber attacks, especially ransomware, the Prime Minister requested to deploy a number of urgent tasks related to network information security.