HCM City has issued a plan on strengthening personal data protection measures. — Photo www.sggp.org.vn

HCM CITY — The HCM City People’s Committee has issued a plan on personal data protection outlining measures to safeguard citizens’ rights to personal privacy and address the illicit trade of personal data in the city.

The plan focuses on the proactive detection and prevention of unauthorised data transfers and sales, and the imposition of stringent penalties for data privacy violations.

Accordingly, all agencies, units, and localities will undertake extensive public awareness campaigns to educate citizens about data privacy rights, responsibilities, and compliance requirements.

Organisations, businesses, and individuals involved in personal data collection and processing are required to conduct thorough audits of their data holdings, classify data according to sensitivity, and establish appropriate security measures.

Additionally, they must review and evaluate their data processing procedures and implement controls commensurate with the scale and nature of their data processing activities.

Any unauthorised transfer or sale of personal data will be subject to severe penalties.

The Authority of Information Safety (AIS) under the Ministry of Information and Communications has warned about the increase of cyberattacks in Việt Nam, especially ransomware in which cybercriminals seize and encrypt data then ask for ransom payments.

The AIS’s statistics showed that there were more than 2,330 attacks on the information systems in Việt Nam in the first quarter of this year, causing system disruption and serious damage while also affecting national cyberspace security.

According to the Việt Nam National Cyber Security Technology Corporation (NSC), there were 13,900 cyberattacks in the country in 2023, an average of 1,160 cases per month, a year-on-year increase of 9.5 per cent.

Most cyberattacks targeted critical infrastructures such as government agencies, financial and educational institutions, banking systems and industrial systems.

In particular, ransomware attacks have caused serious consequences. Around 83,000 computers and servers were reported to be attacked by data encryption malware, up by 8.4 per cent over 2022.

Specifically, the number of ransomware attacks increased sharply in the last quarter of 2023, up 23 per cent against the average of the three previous quarters.

Through security vulnerabilities existing in platforms and self-developed websites of organisations, hackers not only change and steal data but also place hidden links (backlinks) with illegal content, such as gambling advertising, on the hacked websites.

In particular, the leakage of personal data and online fraud is increasing at an alarming rate in Việt Nam, and stolen sensitive data is being widely sold on dark web forums. — VNS