Only 35 per cent of State agencies' online portals have security policies, leaving the others open to spam and attacks at any time, said Information and Communications Deputy Minister Nguyen Minh Hong.

Hong called on agencies to draw up information security policies and clearly stipulate the responsibilities of website managers to protect their online interests.

He said at a recent conference that ministry statistics revealed there were around 100,000 online public services run by State agencies, ministries and provincial people's committees, but that security was lax.

The ministry's Information Technology Department head Nguyen Thanh Phuc said State agency workers used email frequently, accounting for 80 per cent at ministry level and more than 60 per cent at district level.

However, Phuc said, regulations had not been published and shown to employees to ensure email safety and security.

A survey by the Viet Nam Information Security Association had shown 78 per cent out of 100 surveyed websites of State agencies could be attacked at any time.

The association said the sites were weak due to serious security gaps and that it had found 3,600 mistakes on the 100 websites of gov.vn.

Bach Khoa Antivirus said an average six websites a day had been attacked in Viet Nam since the beginning of the year, equal to 2,000 websites a year. 

Source: VNS