Vietnamese Users Lost US$ 18 Million to Computer Viruses

Hanoi-based BKIS (Bach Khoa International Security Center) has recently conducted a survey, according to which, attacks from computer viruses have cost Vietnamese PC users nearly 327 Billion vnd (US$ 18 Million) on average over the period spanning from January 2008 to April 2009.

The center revealed that the number of Vietnamese PCs, as high as 97%, had been subject to virus attacks for a minimum of one time, and the infection spread chiefly through infected USB (Universal Serial Bus) devices. Further, users as many as 90% were compelled to reload the operating software they used because of viruses.

In addition, the viruses caused many users to lose vital data as well as incomplete documents. According to the security center, many people were not aware of the way to tackle the virus attacks appropriately. BKIS' survey revealed that to fix a virus problem, 49% of users either asked their buddies for help or they did it by themselves.

In fact, a majority of users, who do not have sufficient knowledge, should seek the antivirus venders' help as well as install only copyrighted anti-malware software.

Furthermore, BKIS statistics suggest that more than 70% of end-users didn't shutdown their PCs before leaving their worktable that exposed their systems to stealthy installation of malware.

Additionally, BKIS reports that during January-April 2009, hackers penetrated 318 websites of Vietnamese businesses and agencies, of which 215 incidences included attacks from domestic hackers while 103 were from hackers outside the country.

BKIS also found that there were severe security lapses in the websites of 74 banks, businesses, government agencies and online newspapers.

Besides, when 2009 started, security researchers detected15,054 new variants of PC viruses in Vietnam of which 15,038 came from overseas nations and 16 from Vietnam itself. These worms have infected 21 Million computers, with the most widespread variant, W32.VomoF.PE having infected 418,000 PCs.

Furthermore, in January 2009, BKIS had warned computer users about the continuous and grave risk from viruses. Accordingly, the center advised users to establish strong passwords having a combination of numbers and characters and to specifically use separate passwords for separate accounts.

Related article: Vietnam – Nearly 4,000 New Computer Viruses Detected in October 2008

» SPAMfighter News - 5/22/2009