Vietnamese Companies Hit Hard By Cyber Attacks

HÀ NỘI — Companies in Việt Nam suffer the highest costs from cyber attacks in Southeast Asia, according to the Cisco 2018 Asia Pacific Security Capabilities Benchmark Study released on Friday.

Among firms surveyed, 33 per cent said an attack costs more than US$10 million. This greatly exceeds the average in Asia-Pacific (5 per cent), as well as the worldwide number (3 per cent), suggesting that breaches in Việt Nam are severe. Among Southeast Asian countries, only 2 per cent of respondents in Singapore, 4 per cent in Indonesia, 5 per cent in Thailand and the Philippines and 11 per cent in Malaysia say the cost of an attack exceeds $10 million. 

The study shows that outages, when systems are down due to a breach, caused by cyber attacks are longer in Việt Nam, with 14 per cent of respondents saying an outage lasts between one to five days. This is the highest number in Southeast Asia. The longer the outage, the greater the financial impact.

A study released by management consulting firm A.T. Kearney in 2018 estimates that almost instant detection of a breach within a large enterprise costs the business $433,000. If detection is delayed by more than a week, the figure triples to an average of $1,204,000.

“Digital transformation is no longer just a vision in Việt Nam, it is a reality. Businesses across the country are adopting technology and harnessing its power to overcome key challenges and unlock new growth opportunities. However, it is also increasing the risk of cyber attacks as more devices, both consumer and industrial, come online. Việt Nam’s ability to tackle this threat will play a critical role in ensuring that it can reap the full benefits of the digital transformation wave,” said Lương Thị Lệ Thủy, managing director of Cisco Việt Nam. — VNS