Illustrative image (Photo: Kaspersky) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnam is marching towards becoming a cashlesssociety with new methods of electronic payments being deployed widely, butsecurity risks come hand in hand with new technologies and applications.
A study by Visa found a surge in the use of mobile wallets and payment apps inthe country in recent years, with over 85 percent of consumers having at leastone of them and over 42 percent using mobile contactless payments.
Besides, 71 percent of consumers use e-wallets or payment apps at least once aweek.
According to the Fintech and Digital Banking 2025 – Asia Pacific report byBackbase, mobile transactions are forecast to increase by 400 percent in Vietnamby 2025, thanks to the booming digital economy.
It said the above trend could be accelerated by the effects of the unexpectedCOVID-19 outbreak and the Government approved in March the pilot application of'mobile money', which allows the use of mobile phone credit to pay forsmall-value goods and services.
According to statistics from the Department of Telecommunications, by the endof 2020 Vietnam had 132.5 million active mobile subscribers accounts[population less than 100 million]. So the mobile-money service is expected toquickly spread cashless payment across the country, even to rural, remote andisolated areas.
Together with cashless payment systems such as e-wallets, credit cards andbanking services, Vietnam is able to head towards becoming a completelynon-cash society in the near future.
Embracing cashless society securely
In recent times people have increasingly been receiving malicious messages fromcybercriminals disguised as banks.
The message usually says suspicious transactions related to the customers’accounts were found and tells them to login into their accounts using a linkprovided in the message, failing which their accounts will be locked.
In this manner, many customers lost money.
Yeo Siang Tiong, general manager for Southeast Asia at Kaspersky, said: “Theincrease in our reliance on e-wallets and mobile banking apps invite greaterinterest from cybercriminals who are almost always after our money and ourconfidential data. As a result, we see an increase in sophisticated smishingand phishing attempts targeted at mobile banking users.
“We expect more of these incidents in the future, hence it is important tosecure your devices and be aware of the risks online as we embrace a digitalsociety.”
Kaspersky blocked more than 673,000 phishing attempts aimed at small and mediumsized businesses in 2020.
Phishing is a social engineering technique used by cybercriminals to stealinformation from user’s PC, laptop or smartphone for stealing money or data.
“The Vietnam Government, alongside its drive for cashless society, has alsobeen actively spreading awareness and conducting campaigns against threatslurking online,” Vo Duong Tu Diem, Kaspersky’s territory manager for Vietnam,said.
“We believe that with the right cybersecurity measures and correct cyberhabits, Vietnamese can securely conduct financial transactions online.”/.
A study by Visa found a surge in the use of mobile wallets and payment apps inthe country in recent years, with over 85 percent of consumers having at leastone of them and over 42 percent using mobile contactless payments.
Besides, 71 percent of consumers use e-wallets or payment apps at least once aweek.
According to the Fintech and Digital Banking 2025 – Asia Pacific report byBackbase, mobile transactions are forecast to increase by 400 percent in Vietnamby 2025, thanks to the booming digital economy.
It said the above trend could be accelerated by the effects of the unexpectedCOVID-19 outbreak and the Government approved in March the pilot application of'mobile money', which allows the use of mobile phone credit to pay forsmall-value goods and services.
According to statistics from the Department of Telecommunications, by the endof 2020 Vietnam had 132.5 million active mobile subscribers accounts[population less than 100 million]. So the mobile-money service is expected toquickly spread cashless payment across the country, even to rural, remote andisolated areas.
Together with cashless payment systems such as e-wallets, credit cards andbanking services, Vietnam is able to head towards becoming a completelynon-cash society in the near future.
Embracing cashless society securely
In recent times people have increasingly been receiving malicious messages fromcybercriminals disguised as banks.
The message usually says suspicious transactions related to the customers’accounts were found and tells them to login into their accounts using a linkprovided in the message, failing which their accounts will be locked.
In this manner, many customers lost money.
Yeo Siang Tiong, general manager for Southeast Asia at Kaspersky, said: “Theincrease in our reliance on e-wallets and mobile banking apps invite greaterinterest from cybercriminals who are almost always after our money and ourconfidential data. As a result, we see an increase in sophisticated smishingand phishing attempts targeted at mobile banking users.
“We expect more of these incidents in the future, hence it is important tosecure your devices and be aware of the risks online as we embrace a digitalsociety.”
Kaspersky blocked more than 673,000 phishing attempts aimed at small and mediumsized businesses in 2020.
Phishing is a social engineering technique used by cybercriminals to stealinformation from user’s PC, laptop or smartphone for stealing money or data.
“The Vietnam Government, alongside its drive for cashless society, has alsobeen actively spreading awareness and conducting campaigns against threatslurking online,” Vo Duong Tu Diem, Kaspersky’s territory manager for Vietnam,said.
“We believe that with the right cybersecurity measures and correct cyberhabits, Vietnamese can securely conduct financial transactions online.”/.
VNA
