Vietnamese businesses exposed to more ransomware cyberattacks

Experts say ransomware continues attacking businesses, and that cryptocurrency mining malware has appeared on websites in Vietnam, while spyware is attacking Android smartphones.

According to Kaspersky Vietnam, 26.2 percent of victims targeted by ransomware in 2017 are businesses, compared to 22.6 percent in 2016.

2017 will be recorded as a year of ransomware, with a high number of attacks aimed at businesses.

The biggest attacks included one by WannaCry on May 12, 2017, ExPetr on June 27 and BadRabbit in late October.

At least 65 percent of businesses attacked by ransomware in 2017 said they could not access large amounts of data or all data. One out of every six victims who accepted to pay money to get data back could not recover data.

Ransomware mostly targeted businesses for their attacks because it would be easier to blackmail businesses than individuals. In general, businesses are willing to pay money to be able to resume their operation.

Ransomware increased by 167 times from 2015 to 2017. About 3.2 million attacks by ransomware were reported in 2014, while the figure rose to 3.8 million in 2015 and 638 million in 2016.

According to Vo Van Khang from VNISA (Vietnam Information Security Association), a survey by the association found that ransomware increased by 167 times from 2015 to 2017. About 3.2 million attacks by ransomware were reported in 2014, while the figure rose to 3.8 million in 2015 and 638 million in 2016.

Also according to Kaspersky Vietnam, as of the third quarter of 2017, Vietnam ranked second in the world in terms of computer malware with 71.4 percent. At least 85 million malware have been identified in computer systems in Vietnam.

About 12 million malware attacking through the internet exist and 21.3 percent of internet users in Vietnam are threatened by malware. Vietnam ranks 14th in the world in terms of malware attacks through the internet.

Cybersecurity and anti-virus providers reported that in the first nine months of 2017 alone 120,000 users had spyware on Android smartphones, nearly twice as much as the same period last year (70,000). Android smartphone users account for two-thirds in the world.

According to Nokia, Android leads in terms of vulnerability. Among attacked operating systems, 68.5 percent occurred with Android phones, while 27.9 percent with Windows and 3.5 percent with others.

Nokia believes that Android is vulnerable because the platform allows users to install apps from third parties which could be sources of danger.

Meanwhile, VNCERT (Vietnam Computer Emergency Response Team) has detected security risks related to Coinhive, the cryptocurrency mining malware which is hiding on many websites in Vietnam.

The malware is installed in order to exploit victims’ resources (CPU, hardware and memory) to mine digital currencies such as Bitcoin and Monero.

Kim Chi / VietnamNet