ITU is the United Nations agency specialized for information and communication technology (ICTs). The agency first launched Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) in 2014, aiming to foster a global culture of cybersecurity and its integration in the core of ICTs.
It is a survey that measures the commitment of member states to cybersecurity in order to raise awareness, based on ITU’s five pillars (legal, technical, organizational, capacity building and cooperation).
According to the 2017 Global Security Index report, Viet Nam was ranked 101st, 25 places lower than its previous position. Its ranking is far behind several countries in Southeast Asia.
The number one ranking belongs to Singapore. According to ITU, the country has led many cybersecurity initiatives, including to create the Cyber Security Agency dedicated to oversee cybersecurity, and build a comprehensive strategy to handle this issue.
Malaysia is in the third place with a perfect score for capacity building. It focuses on professional training via education institutions and builds the Cyberguru website for security training. Thailand is also in the group of 20 highest ranked countries in the rankings.
Unlike these countries, Viet Nam went through a hard time with two major attacks. The first was an attack to the national airlines and the second was the widespread Wannacry ransomware infections.
According to Will Nguyen, Head of CyberSecurity, KPMG Vietnam and Cambodia, Viet Nam is currently the number one most-attacked country in the world, with a malware encounter rate of over 40%, while the global rate is only 20%.
“Awareness levels in Viet Nam are still low for both the generic public and IT professionals, since cyber security issues do not make headlines very often,” said he.
However, he concluded that, after various attacks to airports, airlines and banks, cybersecurity has now become a growing concern for a lot of organizations in Viet Nam.
According to Bkav Corporation, Viet Nam’s largest company in cybersecurity, the damage costs of computer virus attacks were nearly US$460 million for the whole country in 2016.
