Up to 70% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam operate outside the digital economy and only about 20% are exploring it for now, Vietnam Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (VINASME) president Nguyen Van Than said at a recent event on “Cybersecurity Awareness for SMEs in Vietnam”.
The event attracted key stakeholders from Vietnam and Australia to share experiences and findings from corporate cybersecurity awareness surveys in both countries. The organizers also announced an upcoming survey to assess the cybersecurity readiness of Vietnamese companies.
###: Vietnam’s Digital Economy Is Expected To Reach 20% Of GDP In 4 Years
The discussion helped identify the current information security capacity gap, and highlighted the need for skills development, workforce preparation and transformation to support Vietnam in embracing information security.
Experts at the event suggested that SMEs across Vietnam should strive to improve cybersecurity infrastructure, capabilities and culture.
According to Than, understanding and action towards the digital economy is still relatively slow, uneven and inconsistent across companies. “So it is imperative and urgent to popularize the idea of the digital economy and support Vietnamese companies on their way to embrace it. This is an essential task,” he said.
He also emphasized that cybersecurity awareness is one aspect of driving the digital economy. “I value the topic of today’s discussion, as the experts have foreseen a flip side of Industry 4.0, which is cyber risks to businesses.”
The Director of the Institute of Information Security Technology of the Vietnam Information Security Association and Vice President of BKAV Ngo Tuan Anh presented a 2021 assessment and 2022 forecast of the cybersecurity landscape in Vietnam. He revealed that Vietnam registered about 70.7 million computer virus infections in 2021.
He took this as a warning to the state of cybersecurity in Vietnam, adding that the damage suffered by Vietnamese computer users from viruses remained very high, reaching VND 24.4 trillion (about $1.06 billion) last year.
“The use of computers and smart devices in Vietnam has skyrocketed as a result of Covid-19, creating an ideal environment for computer viruses to break out and spread rapidly,” he said. He also pointed out that supply chain attacks have become a global trend.
“Most of the attacks last year were large-scale and targeted globally known organizations and companies,” Tuan Anh said.
RMIT Senior Lecturer Dr. Pham Cong Hiep shared experiences from Australia and drew on findings from the white paper “2021 State of Cyber Fitness in Australian Small Businesses” co-authored by RMIT University.
The research shows that the cybersecurity readiness of Australian SMEs is not very high, despite their rapid digitalisation during the pandemic.
Only 26% of companies felt they had done enough to protect their business from cybersecurity incidents, while 33% believed they hadn’t. In particular, 77% of respondents felt directly responsible for cyber risks.
“Understanding the factors influencing cybersecurity preparedness is critical to devising appropriate solutions for businesses to improve the current low level of cyber fitness in most SMEs,” said Dr. hip.
Therefore, the upcoming nationwide survey, conducted by RMIT University, VNISA and VINASME, will look at cyber risk, technology adaptation, cybersecurity awareness, skills to prevent and respond to cyber threats, and funding for cybersecurity activities.
The research is expected to help build a better cybersecurity infrastructure, capabilities and culture in the SMB community.
At the event, the RMIT Center for Cyber Security Research and Innovation also officially announced the creation of its Vietnam Hub, led by Dr. Pham Cong Hip.
With the aim of fostering a truly multidisciplinary approach to the organizational, human and technical aspects of cybersecurity, the Hub provides many opportunities for RMIT and local organizations to collaborate on research projects and corporate training, as well as conduct joint events and workshops with cyber experts on worldwide. Australia and Vietnam.
The “Cybersecurity Awareness for SMEs in Vietnam” event was held by RMIT University and the Vietnam Information Security Association, together with the Vietnam Association of Small and Medium Enterprises.
By the Saigon Times. This article was first posted here.
