From the Hanoi Convention to a Healthy Cyberspace

According to Article 64 of the United Nations Convention on Cybercrime, the Convention will be opened for signature in Hanoi in 2025. Therefore, the Convention will be called the "Hanoi Convention".

Asserting national sovereignty in cyberspace.

After nearly five years of negotiations, the "Hanoi Convention" was born, marking a significant milestone in the international community's collective efforts to address the growing threats in cyberspace. Alongside its unlimited benefits and potential for human development, digital technology and the cyber environment also pose numerous security risks and threats to the sustainable development of most nations.

The alarming increase in cybercrime, both in scale, complexity, and scope of impact, is estimated to have cost the global economy approximately US$8 trillion in 2023 and is projected to reach US$10.5 trillion by 2025, exceeding the GDP of most of the world's largest economies. In this context, the Hanoi Convention contributes to creating a comprehensive legal framework that addresses the urgent need for international cooperation to promote the rule of law in cyberspace.

Hosting the signing ceremony of the "Hanoi Convention" will also be an opportunity for Vietnam to continue to promote its role as a responsible and reliable member of the international community, actively promote multilateralism, participate in leading the process of building and shaping global digital governance frameworks, ensure cybersecurity and national sovereignty in cyberspace, and create a foundation for the successful implementation of the digital transformation strategy to prepare the country for a new era, an era of national progress.

In that spirit, Hanoi's selection as the location for signing the United Nations Convention on Cybercrime further affirms Vietnam's efforts in ensuring cybersecurity, thereby guaranteeing healthy economic development and ensuring that applications in cyberspace truly serve Vietnam's sustainable development. It also ensures that national interests and the legitimate rights of citizens are respected and protected.

Vietnam has been and continues to make efforts to join hands with other countries in combating various types of cybercrime. (Illustrative image.)

Vietnam strives to create a healthy online environment.

The Hanoi Convention was born out of nearly five years of continuous negotiations, spanning from 2021 to 2024, among member states to build a comprehensive multilateral legal framework to combat this dangerous type of crime.

This was also a period when Vietnamese authorities made relentless efforts to directly combat various types of cybercrime, especially in preventing the exploitation of cyberspace for fraud in the financial and banking sectors, with many large-scale fraud cases and networks reaching hundreds, even thousands of billions of dong.

Recently, the Hanoi Police uncovered a fraud ring led by "Mr. Pips" (also known as Pho Duc Nam), with the amount of money defrauded reaching several trillion VND, making it one of the largest fraud rings ever brought to light.

Recently, the Bac Ninh Police uncovered a financial fraud ring led by Nguyen Duc Hung, defrauding victims of 10 billion VND. Particularly noteworthy is the case in Thanh Hoa, where fraudsters Giang Dinh Loc, Nguyen Truong Thanh, Pham Phuong Dong, and Le Van Long were arrested and detained by the police. The amount involved reached billions of VND and the scale and extent of the fraud are still being investigated. Significantly, this group also "linked" with other fraud groups and engaged in money laundering.