Though security experts have rung the alarm bell over information safety, enterprises still turn a deaf ear on the warnings and refuse to spend money on security solutions. As a result, the supply of security solutions remains redundant with anti-virus products remaining unsold.

Since June, more than 200 websites, including 51 websites with the “.gov” have been hacked, according to Nguyen Minh Duc, network security director of BKAV, a network security company, who stressed that the figure is alarmingly high.

Though facing the high risks of losing information, according to network security companies, Vietnamese enterprises, except banking, finance and e-commerce ones, have been neglecting security solutions.

According to security solution companies, the value of the security solution market segment, including the systematic solutions to personal anti-virus software products, is about 30 million dollars in 2011. It is estimated that institutional clients brings 90 percent of the total turnover, while the other 10 percent by individual clients.

It’s hard to find buyers: businesses don’t want to spend money

Duc from BKAV said that in general, enterprises, institutions and government agencies do not pay much interest in information security; therefore, they do not spend money on security solutions.

The problem is that they do not fully assess all the damages when the systems are attacked, according to Duc. “In some cases, the enterprises’ systems were attacked and all of the database was lost, but the owners of enterprises knew nothing about the matter,” he said.

Ngo Tran Vu, Managing Director of Nam Truong Son, the distributor of Kaspersky anti-virus products, thinks that enterprises well understand the value of information, but they keep subjectivism. Also, businesses do not want to spend more money when they face financial difficulties.

Meanwhile, according to Phan Thanh Son, Technology Director of Cisco Vietnam, of the enterprises that Cisco once contacted, many enterprises pay 7-10 percent of the total expenses on information technology (IT) on security solutions.

“They accept to spend money because they well understand the value of data to the vitality of enterprises,” he said.

Also according to Son, the 7-10 percent spending on security solutions proves to be the ideal level. At present, the budget for security solutions at 30 million dollars, just accounting for one percent of the total expenses on IT projects proves to be too low.

Security experts say that in many cases, Vietnamese enterprises, including big ones, do not spend money on comprehensive solutions, while they only try to upgrade the links of the chains which they think remain weak. Many enterprises only make investment in hardware, but do not make investment in comprehensive solutions, or they only spend money on systematic software, while they do not care about security standards in accordance with international practice.

“Such a way of making investment will not bring effects in preventing the attacks from outside,” Son said.

The market remains small

Regarding individual security products, the Vietnamese market is witnessing the appearance of many foreign brands, including Kaspersky, Symantec, BitDefender, Panda Security, PC Tools, or Avira. Some domestic brands have also become well known, such as BKAV or CMC.

Ngo Tran Vu from Nam Truong Son Company said that the turnover brought by anti-virus products remain below the expectations of the manufacturers, but it really has much significance for the manufacturers who have been making investment in the field.

According to Vu Ngoc Son, an executive of BKAV, 10.5 million people are using BKAV made anti-virus products.

Regarding big security solutions, foreign Cisco, Kaspersky, Symantec, CheckPoint and domestic FPT, FIS, Sao Bac Dau and HPT have become more popular. The security solutions now have the prices of several thousands of dollars at the lowest and several millions of dollars at the highest.

Source: SGTT