'Many people lost all their life's accumulated money because of cyber fraud'

At the 2023 Information Security Day event, organized by the Vietnam Information Security Association (VNISA) and the Information Security Department – Ministry of Information and Communications on November 30 in Hanoi, Deputy Director Tran Dang Khoa said that in the past 11 months, the Department has recorded, warned and handled more than 11,400 cases of cyber attacks. Of these, there were more than 10,200 phishing attacks, 450 deface attacks and 880 malware attacks, an increase of 1.9% over the same period last year.

According to him, the authorities have increased propaganda and dissemination of information security skills to the people. However, there are still people who do not have the knowledge and are not aware of risks in cyberspace. “As a result, many people, especially the elderly, became victims of cybercrime and lost their life savings,” he said.

Mr. Khoa said that people who lack these information security skills are the weakest link, targeted first by bad guys, thereby escalating their attacks on individuals and other parts of the system. Statistics show that up to 80% of cyber attacks come from this group.

At the event, Mr. Vu Quoc Thanh, Vice President of VINSA, said that the association has also recorded many cases of online fraud with amounts ranging from tens of millions to several billions of dong. In just a short time, all the money in the victim’s account returned to zero.

“Some people who lost billions said that bad guys approached and talked to them with all kinds of private information. In my opinion, 100% of successful scams are related to the process of collecting personal data,” he said. “Protecting information and improving knowledge about network security is an urgent issue.”

Security experts warn that online fraud is becoming more complex and disguised in many forms. For example, in mid-September, Hai Phong Police said that a 73-year-old citizen was tricked into transferring 1.3 billion VND by listening to people impersonating police officers. At the end of August, the Department of Cyber Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention – Hanoi Police also received a report from a person who lost nearly 10 billion VND because of joining a group on Telegram. Lured into registering a membership card to receive a “commission”, this person transferred it to the bad guys more than 10 times before discovering that he had been scammed.

Faced with that situation, Mr. Nguyen Huy Dung, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, said that people should equip digital skills to protect themselves in cyberspace. In addition, it is also necessary to consider information and personal data as a type of asset to consciously protect and not let it fall into the wrong hands.

“This type of asset needs to be carefully protected, avoiding easy sharing and providing information to unsecured third parties,” he said.

According to Mr. Tran Dang Khoa, the Ministry of Information and Communications has established an anti-fraud database, connected to browsers, search engines and businesses’ cybersecurity solutions. In addition, the Ministry also established three national projects including: management support platform to ensure information system security by level; national network information security incident handling coordination platform; and digital investigation support platform.

In the past 11 months, authorities have blocked 3,300 violating websites, including nearly 1,000 fraudulent websites, helping about 3.6 million people avoid the risk of online fraud. For businesses and organizations that have the ability to access users’ personal information, authorities also develop regulations to increase the level of information security. If they do not comply, these units must be held responsible when incidents occur.

Hoang Giang