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In the first six months of 2023, there were 5,100 cyberattacks on systems in Vietnam; nearly 400 websites of agencies and organizations with .gov.vn and .edu.vn domains were hacked, with gambling and betting advertisements injected; and a series of online scams continuously occurred.
On June 23rd, the Vietnam National Cyber Security Technology Company (NCS) released a report summarizing the cybersecurity situation in Vietnam during the first six months of 2023. According to the report, the first six months of 2023 saw a surge in online fraud. Despite numerous warnings, the number of victims of these scams continued to increase and showed no signs of slowing down.
The losses in some cases amounted to hundreds of millions of VND, while the methods of fraud were becoming increasingly sophisticated and unpredictable. Most notably, the "easy job, high pay" scams have surged, especially as fraudsters shifted their operations from Zalo to Telegram. With Telegram, they can easily create large groups, avoiding the limitations of small groups and the control of Vietnamese authorities. Telegram's design also allows fraudsters to quickly retract messages and images, and delete groups to avoid being traced, if detected.
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Online fraud has increased in Vietnam in various forms recently. |
Compared to 2022, scams via Zalo and Facebook Messenger calls have become increasingly sophisticated, with the emergence of Deepfake technology making victims more susceptible to deception because they can see and hear the scam firsthand through images and sound.
Scammers not only impersonate relatives and friends, but also police officers, making it difficult for victims to distinguish between genuine and fake information. Fraudulent attacks using fake BTS stations to spread SMS Brandname messages are showing signs of shifting their operations to suburban areas of major cities to evade detection by authorities. Although the methods and content of these scams are not new, many people are still falling victim.
Besides increasing vigilance, people are also eagerly awaiting stronger measures from regulatory agencies, such as blocking spam SIM cards and numbers, and blocking spam bank accounts, to quickly eradicate the problem of fraud and bring a cleaner online environment.
According to NCS statistics, in the first six months of the year, nearly 400 websites of state agencies with the .gov.vn domain and educational institutions with the .edu.vn domain were attacked, infiltrated, and had gambling and betting advertising code injected by hackers.
This is a relatively alarming number. Not only can hackers insert advertising links, but once they gain control of the system, they can steal databases, including users' personal data, and even potentially post malicious content or links to spread malware in the future. Besides reviewing and addressing these issues, it's time for agencies and organizations to seriously consider their website and portal systems. They should deploy dedicated personnel or outsource network security services to ensure cybersecurity.
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The risk of targeted attacks on critical ATP systems is ever-present. |
NCS statistics show that in the past six months, the number of cyberattacks on Vietnamese systems was 5,100, a decrease of about 12% compared to 2022. However, targeted APT attacks on critical infrastructure increased by about 9% compared to the same period in 2022. This is because critical infrastructure always contains a lot of important data and has a significant impact, making it a preferred target for hackers.
NCS experts stated that APT (Advanced Persistent Threat) attacks on Vietnamese networks in the first six months of the year focused on three main attack methods: attacking users via email, with fake emails containing malicious attachments in the form of text files or fake login links to steal user accounts; attacking through software vulnerabilities on servers, most commonly systems using Microsoft software such as Exchange and SharePoint; and attacking through website vulnerabilities, especially SQL Injection vulnerabilities or through password cracking for website and server administrators.
After infiltrating a component of the system, whether it's a user's machine or a vulnerable server, hackers will lie low, collecting login credentials, and then expand their attacks to other machines on the network. In reality, APT attacks can last for weeks, even months. However, many organizations lack network security monitoring systems and dedicated experts, so by the time the attack is detected, a significant amount of data has already been lost, and hackers have had enough time to erase traces of the intrusion, making investigation and remediation difficult. To prevent APT attacks, organizations need to conduct a comprehensive system review, collect complete activity logs, assign dedicated personnel, or outsource network security monitoring services.
NCS also provided a forecast for the last six months of the year. According to the forecast, online scams, cyberattacks, and targeted APT attacks will continue. However, with the involvement of authorities in eliminating fake bank accounts, and especially with the decree on personal data protection coming into effect, there is hope that the scam situation will soon be resolved. According to NCS, the return of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, including the large-scale attack that paralyzed Microsoft's Azure cloud server system at the end of June, shows the significant capacity and number of botnets that hackers possess. In previous years, major DDoS attacks on Vietnamese networks also originated from foreign botnets. It is highly likely that similar DDoS attacks targeting Vietnamese entities will occur in the last six months of the year. Data encryption attacks will continue to occur in the future, so users need to equip themselves with secure data backup solutions and use cybersecurity software capable of preventing data encryption to protect their computers and servers.
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