Scammers target financial institutions in Vietnam

Data from the Information and Communications Ministry shows that the agency received more than 4,000 reports from Internet users about fraudulent activities in the first half of this year. — Vietnam News

HANOI: Online phishing attacks continue to increase in many sophisticated forms. Most scammers target financial institutions and banks.

Data from the Information and Communications Ministry shows that the agency received more than 4,000 reports from Internet users about fraudulent activities in the first half of this year.

Of these, more than 95% target the banking and finance sectors. Notably, as banks undergo deeper digital transformation, cybersecurity risks also increase.

The report from the National Cyber Security Centre also noted that there were 9,519 cyber attacks in the first seven months of this year in Vietnam, causing incidents to information systems.

Accordingly, the centre has blocked 926 fraudulent websites, including many pages impersonating banks and financial institutions.

Phan Viet Linh, director of CDNetworks Vietnam, said that banks currently often face attacks on Layer 3/4, Layer 7 DDoS, and web applications with a variety of attack methods.

CDNetworks statistics show that more than 87% of attacks combine two or more attack methods. Additionally, the banking system also faces the risk of slow connectivity with global applications, which greatly affects the customer experience.

NCS Technologies recorded that the number of websites of state agencies with the domain name .gov.vn and some educational organisations with the domain name .edu.vn that were attacked, infiltrated, and inserted with advertising codes for gambling and betting by hackers reached nearly 400 websites in the first half of this year.

This is a particularly alarming number because not only can hackers insert advertising links, but when they control the system, they can steal databases, including users’ personal data, and might even post malicious content or links that spread malicious code in the near future, said Vu Ngoc Son, NCS Technology director. — Viet Nam News/ANN