Vietnam the safest country in Southeast Asia for online banking: Kaspersky

Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab recently described Vietnam as the safest country in Southeast Asia against the threat of financial attacks targeting banks, payment systems and online stores.

Illustrative image. (Photo: datalinknetworks.net)
Illustrative image. (Photo: datalinknetworks.net)

In an interview with Sputnik news agency, Yeo Siang Tiong, Kaspersky Lab’s general manager for Southeast Asia, said that the company's statistics showed the rate of scams related to banks, payment systems and online stores in Vietnam was lower than other countries in the region. The fraud rate was 26.36% in Vietnam while it was 40.87% in Indonesia, 46.77% in Malaysia, 64,03% in the Philippines, 51.6% in Singapore and 56.35% in Thailand.

Regarding Vietnam's efforts in ensuring security against attacks on the financial sector, Yeo said the increase in online transactions in the country during the COVID-19 pandemic was parallel with the rise of frauds through the use of fake pages of popular payment systems such as Visa, Mastercard and PayPal.

It can be seen that the online transactions and shopping of users are increasingly improved, and this can be attributed to the ongoing efforts of the Government of Vietnam to raise awareness on financial and data security in the context of mobile banking and e-wallets flourishing in the region.

According to the Fintech and Digital Banking 2025 - Asia Pacific report by Backbase, mobile transactions are forecast to increase by 300% in Vietnam by 2025, thanks to the booming digital economy.

Vietnam is definitely ready for rapid digital transformation as well as ensuring a safer financial environment for organisations and individuals due to strong infrastructure and threat intelligence sharing, Yeo said.