EuroCham ICT Sector Committee and Member speak on Cyber Security Threats in Vietnam

Cyber Security has been the very popular topic recent days, especially with inspection of extensive damages that are happening in Vietnam.

EuroCham as the voice of European Business Community in Vietnam has been approached by different Media/News Agencies to share comments on the topic.

Cyber Security Experts from EuroCham’s Information and Communications Technology Sector Committee and its Partner PwC Vietnam announce their statements as below:

Mr. Amanuel Flobbe, Chairman of EuroCham ICT Sector Committee:
"The increase of cyberattacks has been seen worldwide. Vietnam is not an exception as we have the same problem that small and big companies are targeted by these attacks. Security Lifecycle Review – a risk assessment programme conducted by Palo Alto Networks with lots of Enterprises in Vietnam has shown the big volume attack to a big Enterprise (aka. 4,000 unknown malware samples within 10 days). There are European companies that have been damaged, this is visibly within the worldwide trend. We also see that both European, other foreign and local companies could be targeted. More and more companies have to hire experts and train the staff to understand the security risks that are part of their everyday working routine. Even if companies already invested the last few years in their security, the attacks with extensive damage are happening, possibly due to failure of legacy defense-in-depth approach/security architecture, which exists in most organizations today: limited visibility, lacks of correlation and manual response. Cyberattack prevention is possible, but only with right security architecture: complete visibility, reduce attack surface, prevent both known and unknown threats, which empowered by next-generation security platform with automated orchestration ecosystem."
 

Mr. Robert Trong Tran – Director of Cyber Security Services at PwC Vietnam – A member company of EuroCham Vietnam. 
“I'm not aware of these hacking incidences on European companies but if they are true, I would not consider the attackers to be "professional" hackers. Otherwise, they would have covered their tracks and left no trace behind. Professional cybercriminals never stop developing more sophisticated and cunning methods. So many companies might not even know yet that they have already fallen victim to cybercrime.
Hacking is indeed a big problem for all companies in Vietnam, not just particularly European companies.  I think Vietnam organisations are the most attractive targets simply because most of them are not ready for hacking attacks. Their cyber defense is not keeping up with the extent of their engagement in the cyber world. There is something European companies should be aware of when doing business with local partners: Hackers always choose the easiest target, and this could be one of their local, Vietnamese partners. So to minimise risks, I strongly advise European firms to carry out third-party cybersecurity assessment and secure their boundaries." They must have visibility on their third-party cybersecurity risks (i.e. risk from local partners, contractors, suppliers, etc.)”

Media Contact:
Ms. Nam Pham  – Communications and Marketing – Assistant Manager 
Email: communication@eurochamvn.org
Tel: 08 38272715 Ext 120