Hanoi (VNA) - The shift to digital banking has helped banks to providemodern and convenient services to customers, but this has also exposed them tomany security risks, experts said at a conference in Hanoi on August 16.

The conference was jointly organised by the Information Technology Departmentunder the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) and the Information Security Authorityunder the Ministry of Information and Communications.

The experts noted that the Fourth Industrial Revolution is taking place in manycountries, bringing opportunities to effect far-reaching changes. This alsoapplies to the banking system in terms of their asset size, capital andnetwork, they said.

In May this year, the Prime Minister issued Decision No 632/QD-TTg, under whichthe network information security of 11 key areas, including banking, would beprioritised.

Nguyen Huy Dung, deputy director of the Information Security Authority, saidthat even though banking was a pioneering sector to invest in informationsafety, the loss of money still occurred because users themselves did not haveenough knowledge and financial organisations did not instruct them properly onavoiding risks.

“Therefore, the Ministry of Information and Communications is completing alegal framework on information system security and will announce this in thecoming months,” he said.

Nguyen Quang Hung, deputy director of the SBV’s Information TechnologyDepartment, said many banks in Vietnam adhered to global information securitystandards like ISO 27001 and NIST 800-53.

In addition, to ensure information security, the SBV Governor issued adirective on enhancing security in electronic and card payments early thisyear, and recently, a decision on security solutions regarding online and bankcard payments.

Speaking on information security in the Vietnamese banking system, Thanut Pimhataivoot,an expert from NTT Data Thailand, said that the Vietnamese banking sector haddeveloped security systems in accordance with international practices, butthere were some organisations that had not fully abided by regulations,resulting in security incidents.

Ha The Phuong, deputy general director of CMC InfoSec, spoke of disadvantagesregarding information security at Vietnamese banks.

Some projects investing in security focused on buying equipment, but without acorresponding long-term strategy on human resources and training, he said. Inmany cases, employees in information and technology management lacked necessarysecurity qualifications, he added.

The expert from CMC InfoSec also mentioned advanced persistent threats (APT)facing the banking information system.

In the context of the increasingly complicated information security situation,banks, payment portal providers and financial institutions need to be moreaware of the problems, and develop measures in collaboration with securitycompanies to counter threats and network attacks, experts said at theconference.-VNA