Ransomware increased 200% in Vietnam

October 16, 2021 12:14

In Vietnam, ransomware is not a new security risk, but it has continuously grown in quantity and level of danger in recent years.

Basically, ransomware infiltrates personal computers or business systems through phishing methods, encrypts important data files on the device and demands ransom in digital currency (BTC). Victims cannot decrypt to restore data encrypted by ransomware.

Chú thích ảnh — *Top 10 countries most affected by ransomware attacks. Source: Malware Activity Report from VirusTotal and Google*

In a recent report on ransomware activity jointly conducted by VirusTotal and Google with more than 80 million suspected samples, it shows that ransomware has increased by nearly 200% compared to the initial time in Vietnam. The report recorded data from 140 countries and also said that from 2020 to July 2021, more than 130 ransomware families were activated, of which GandCrab is the most powerful ransomware.

In addition, according to data from the National Cyber Security Monitoring Center (NCSC), in the first 8 months of 2021, the Department of Information Security recorded 5,082 cyber attacks causing incidents to information systems in Vietnam (1,212 Phishing attacks, 970 Deface attacks, 2,900 Malware attacks), an increase of 25.82% over the same period in the first 8 months of 2020.

The reason for the increase in the number of cyber attacks compared to before is that in recent times, the COVID-19 epidemic situation has increased and become more complicated; at the same time, the application of social distancing measures across the province and city according to Directive 16, plus the vaccination situation across the country, are important information that users search for a lot on social networks. Taking advantage of that, cyber attackers have created many fraudulent websites, specifically impersonating the Ministry of Health website, charity donation pages... to spread, infect malware, and scam to appropriate and destroy information of users as well as organizations.

Google also collaborated with the NCSC to launch the Phishing Quiz. A quiz that tests users' awareness of phishing scams on the NCSC website.

The test includes 8 questions simulating some very realistic email scam situations that anyone can encounter and fall into, thereby helping users equip themselves with knowledge and raise their vigilance against strange emails sent to them, protecting user accounts from scammers on the Internet.

Right now, Vietnamese users can accesscome hereTake the test and improve your knowledge, be alert to phishing emails.

According to Tin Tuc newspaper