HÀ NỘI — “Only a few computers” in Việt Nam remain infected with WannaCry, Nguyễn Khắc Lịch, Deputy Director of the Việt Nam Computer Emergency Response Team (VNCERT), under the Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC), told a conference on information security today.

According to Lịch, the latest figure from yesterday showed that over 300,000 Windows computers in 99 countries, including Việt Nam, have become the victims of the massive cyberattack.

Specifically, 328,150 computers were infected with the WannaCry ransomware, 248,995 – or nearly 76 per cent – of which have been treated, leaving 79,155 computers infected.

“However, the removal of the ransomware has been done swiftly across the world. According to updated figure, this morning, the number of infected computers dipped to 7,000, including a few cases in Việt Nam,” Lịch said.

The first reported case of the ransomware in Việt Nam was a server taken down in the northern province of Thái Nguyên on May 12, he said.

The next day, VNCERT issued warnings and information on protection measures against the dangerous malware.

VNCERT also said Việt Nam is facing increasingly elevated information security risks.

From the beginning of the year to May 15, 5,345 Vietnamese websites have been hacked. 13,000 websites hacked in 2016.

MoIC Deputy Minister Phan Tâm, said at the conference that after six years of deploying the information security response network, 130 members have participated in the joint effort, however, the network’s activities have not yet “achieved satisfying results”.

Prime Minister’s Decision 05/2017/QĐ-TTg on emergency response to ensure national information network security was conceived to address the growing threats, both in terms of sophistication and number, he said.

Phan Tâm urged all emergency response teams in all organisations and agencies to co-operate with each other in sharing information, which will bring mutual benefits.

The latest statistics from Kaspersky show that Việt Nam ranks 6th in the world in denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks, and ranks in the top 10 countries with the most victims of botnet (with 574,547 computers). — VNS