1.

Introduction

Nowadays, everyone in the world can access an open and unlimited source of information
through the Internet. Sharing data has becoming easier than ever. However, the information is not
always available for several reasons: legality, safety, privacy, etc. Therefore, the study of internet
security is certainly one of the most significant sections to be considered in all countries. A
credible internet security system is responsible for those criteria above, and assure that the
information is delivered in a right way.

In Vietnam, the government confirmed that information technology would be a key economic
sector, having first priority. On the other side, “there is lack of security awareness among top
management at enterprises, and computer hacking remains the biggest danger “(Nguyen The
Dong, 2005)

Undeniably, the development of information technology must go together with strong Internet
security. This paper aims to clarify the definition of Internet security, and discusses the question of
what the actual situation of Internet security in Vietnam is as well as how to improve it.

2. Discussion of findings

2.1 The concept of Internet security

Obviously, Internet security is the security of the Internet. Internet could be described as an
information channel, where data of every kind flows. However, some of this data may be valuable,
and thus need to be protected. According to Rajarathanam (Internet Security Solutions, 2005),
Internet security is “the practice of securing the private information on the internet “. In addition, it
must ensure the CIA of information. He explained the CIA as three fundamental principles of
information security:

_Confidentiality ( C ) : allowing only people who have accessible permission to access particular
information. When information is read or copied by someone not authorized to do so, the result is
known as loss of confidentiality.

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_Integrity ( I ) : protecting information from being modified in unexpected ways.

_Availability (A): Ensuring that information can be accessed and available when requested.

Internet security is a very large and complex issue, crossing many fields and disciplines .As an
increasing number of organizations and individuals come on to Internet day by day, the Internet
security is becoming an essential factor to maintain the safety in the environment of all internet
users.

2.2 The actual situation of Internet security in Vietnam

Despite quite a late starting point, the development of Internet in Vietnam is very dynamic and
outstanding. However, among those connected to the Internet there is a lack of adequate
knowledge about the network and about the security. The fact is that many young Internet users
believe that the Internet is a virtual world, where they are free to do anything, even illegal
accesses. In truth, Internet environment is always risky, containing many gaps for hackers to take
advantage of. The rush to the Internet, coupled with a lack of understanding is leading to the
exposure of sensitive data and managing system. Consequently, many attacks caused by hackers
are serious and unavoidable

7%
17% Serious reported incidents: 29
14%

DDoS
Disperse virus
Deface website
Fraud
38% Phishing
24%

Figure 1: Network security incidents ( Tran Tuan Anh , 2007)

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 If information is recorded electronically and is available on networked computers, it is more
vulnerable than if the same information is printed on paper. Intruders do not need to enter an office
or home, and may not even be in the same country. They can steal or tamper with information
without touching a piece of paper or a photocopier. They can create new electronic files, run their
own programs, and even hide all evidence of their unauthorized activity.

BKIS , the first Internet security centre of Vietnam, was established in 2001 by Nguyen Tu Quang
and many experts in this field. They have carried out plenty of significant activities and cope with
hundreds of illegal attacks and new virus everyday. Their antivirus software, BKAV, is a free
product, provided to users all over the country. It is a very popular freeware in Vietnam and it is
frequently updated about once a week. Although BKAV is still not as competitive as those famous
antivirus products like Norton Anti Virus, McAfee, Bit Defender, etc, it made a considerable
contribution to the Network Security of Vietnam indeed. For Vietnamese people, who haven’t got
used to paying for computer software, BKAV is always a smart choice. It explained why BKAV
has been downloaded approximate 1 million times. BKIS , the author of BKAV, stated in their
report ( BKIS, Activity report of 2003 ) that more than 90 percent of individual machine in
Vietnam had infected by viruses and the damages go up to tens of billions of VND. In 2003, the
number of new viruses appear in Vietnam came to 63, while in 2002 it was only 30.Among these
viruses , 15 kinds could result in spread attacking , and most of them happened from June to
December. Some most typical case were: W32.Swen, W32.Sobig.F, W32.Ms Blaster,
W32.Opaserv, W32.Bugbear, etc (BKIS, Activity report of 2003).

180
160 155

140
120
101 102
100
New viruses
80 70
60 49
40 27
20
0
6 7 8 9 10 11 Month

Figure 2. Computer virus booming –new viruses appear in 6/11/2006

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In year 2005, BKIS associated with Hanoi university of Technology in surveying the condition of
Internet security in Vietnam .From this survey, the danger of virus and other threats were warned
once again: “94 percent of computers of more than 2,000 users in Vietnam were infected with
viruses, and 87 percent with spyware (software that covertly gathers user information through the
user's Internet connection without his or her knowledge, usually for advertising purposes), and
adware (a form of spyware that collects information about the user in order to display
advertisements in the web browser based on the information it collects from the user's browsing
patterns). Forty-four percent of the surveyed users said their companies or organizations had to
stop working for at least one day due to virus infections. Up to 96 percent of computers of people
working in the field of commerce were hit by viruses, 95 percent in education, and 94 percent in
services. Up to 87 percent of the surveyed users were annoyed by spyware and adware, and 89
percent by spam (unwanted emails, generally emails advertising for a certain product or service).
Thirty-four percent of surveyed websites in Vietnam were attacked once or twice this year, 11
percent 3-5 times, and 20 percent more than 5 times. According to the BKIS's calculation, each
computer user in Vietnam suffered losses of 260,000-410,000 VND (16.4- 25.8 US dollars) in
2005 due to viruses and hackers. Forty-four percent of surveyed users updated their anti-virus
programs on weekly basis, 28 percent on irregular basis, 20 percent on daily basis, and 8 percent
on monthly basis”( Vietnam detects more computer viruses this year: Survey , December 2005).

Attacks come from hackers were also much more diversified and threatening. They caused
modification in the structure as well as contents of domestic websites, even sensitive websites. One
unavoidable method, of which the majority of hackers are in favor is denial of service. A denial of
service attack is an attack on a computer system or network that causes a loss of service to users,
typically by overloading the victim’s computational resources. Various commercial and
educational sites have been attacked recently, including popular ones like tuoitre, vnexpress.
Normally, the common goal for those attacks was to disrupt services.

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2.3 How to improve the Internet security in Vietnam

To brainstorm the ideas for solving Internet privacy problems, many meetings have been
organized. Experts have stressed that the importance of Internet security in Vietnam affects all the
Government, organizations and individuals. It is about time the government worked out legal
documents and national technological standards for Internet security solutions as well as legal
rules on violations. Legislation is an effective means to fight against Internet crime. It can help us
not only protect our private data, but also improve our public data accessing. Although security
technology often keeps us away from being attack, it can not always work as well as we expect.
When the loss has already been caused by hacking, technical things can do nothing with the crime.
However, we could use law to punish the criminals and to reduce the loss by fines.

Definitely, the long-term solution for all Internet threats must be the way we educate young
people. The Internet itself can not harm users or develop new threats. It is the human who create
all the risks on the Internet because of the wrong attitude. Among hackers, there are many IT
talents that could be used as efficient cadres. If a hacker have good attitude, he can become “white
hat” hacker, who helps IT managers find and repair their network’s faults. Besides, we should
universalize safe network understanding to the community in order to avoid unexpected behaviors.
Here are some useful techniques and indispensable principles to strengthen the Internet security:

Use an anti-virus program. Always that scans files and email messages for viruses, worms,
and Trojan horses.
Use a personal firewall. A firewall creates a barrier between personal computer and the
Internet allowing an user to control the flow of information to and from his computer.
Protect passwords. Difficult to guess, unique passwords are the best. Longer passwords that
mix numbers and letters are more difficult to guess than shorter ones.
Use a secure browser. Use a Web browser that has 128-bit secure sockets layer encryption
(SSL).
Do not send confidential information by email. Although email is common and widely used
today, it is not secure. (Internet security tips, 2006)

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3. Conclusion
It was indicated in the findings that the Internet without reliable security could bring back
uncontrolled damage. On one side we can achieve a huge fund of knowledge by collecting and
analyzing information on the Internet. On the other side, Hackers and intruders can take advantage
of sensitive information to carry out their bad activities. Therefore, the Internet security should
have appropriate attention and priority, especially in Vietnam.
Overall, the actual situation in Vietnam is remarkable and even alarming because the majority of
people seem indifferent to this issue. Consequently, the damage to the property is more and more
serious.
Unfortunately, we can’t predict the ways the Hackers use to perform their attacks. The best way
to fight with them is to be better ones in information technology. For those home users, it is
necessary to obey some principles of Internet security.