Cyber attacks for ransom will become more complicated

According to Lieutenant Colonel Le Xuan Thuy - Director of the National Cyber Security Center (Ministry of Public Security), ransomware attacks are not a new form of cyber attack, but have become quite popular in recent years.

The victims that hackers target are financial and securities organizations. What happened recently with VNDIRECT or PVOIL has made many agencies and units worried about an organized ransomware attack campaign targeting IT systems in Vietnam.

Although the investigation agency has not yet reached a final conclusion on the possibility of a large-scale organized attack, preliminary results show that the methods of this criminal group are extremely sophisticated and dangerous. Notably, the attack scenarios have many similarities.

The above information was shared by Mr. Le Xuan Thuy at the seminar "Preventing ransomware attacks" held on the afternoon of April 5 in Hanoi.

Lieutenant Colonel Le Xuan Thuy said the methods of the criminal group that recently attacked Vietnamese businesses were extremely sophisticated and dangerous.

Also at the event, Mr. Vu Ngoc Son - Technology Director of NCS and Head of Technology Research Department of Vietnam National Cyber Security Association (NCA) predicted that in the coming time, hacker groups will increase cyber attacks using ransomware, targeting key agencies, economic, financial and energy organizations.

"This situation will continue to develop in a complicated manner, not excluding the possibility that malware attacks have been deeply embedded in information systems," said Mr. Vu Ngoc Son.

The warning story about the risks of cyber attacks has been mentioned for a long time, but when it happens, it still leaves serious consequences, not only causing economic damage to businesses but also causing stagnation and interruption in operations, directly affecting the market.

Discussing this issue, Deputy Director of the National Cyber Security Monitoring Center (Ministry of Information and Communications) - Pham Thai Son said that the awareness of the role and importance of ensuring network safety and security of most IT system owners in Vietnam is currently limited.

This explains why the response capacity and ability to handle and fix problems before cyber attacks are still low. "Many important information technology systems have been invested in but are not synchronized, lack regular and periodic monitoring, inspection and evaluation, and still have technical weaknesses and security holes," Mr. Pham Thai Son shared. There are even cases where vulnerabilities have been warned about but after a long time, they are still left intact, without a plan to handle and patch security holes.

According to statistics, since the beginning of 2023, there have been more than 13,750 cyber attacks on information systems in Vietnam causing incidents. In particular, in the first 3 months of 2024 alone, the number of cyber attacks on information systems in Vietnam was 2,323.

Khanh Linh

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