Vietnamese lose $902M to malware in 2022: report

The report said around 180,000 computers in Vietnam had been infected with Advanced Persistent Threats (APT) over the past year, mainly through infected emails, local media reported. The malware would activate itself the moment an infected file is open, allowing data to be stolen and systems to be remote controlled, among other ways.

Bkav experts said there have been large-scaled ransomware attacks on servers over the past year. In 2022, ransomware attacks have targeted over 14,500 computers, while in 2021, the number was only around 1,000 computers.

Nguyen Tien Dat, director of Bkav’s anti-malware branch, said hackers find it easier to gain access to servers as they are where services are publicized through the Internet.

A Bkav survey also revealed that 40% of Vietnamese users do not back up their data, or do it inappropriately, leading to heavy losses, or even causing data to be irretrievable once they become targets of ransomwares.