VietNamNet Bridge – An independent
survey conducted by BKAV (Bach Khoa antivirus) in January 2011 shows that
computer virus infections in 2010 were not considerably improved, and computer
viruses still caused a big loss of 5900 billion dong to users.

The losses
have been calculated based on the income of computer users and the duration
when their work was interrupted due to the viruses. On average, every computer
user in Vietnam
lost 1,192,000 dong in 2010. With at least five million computers in regular
use across the country, the total losses caused by computer viruses in 2010
might have reached 5900 billion dong.

The percentage of virus infected
computers decreased slightly in 2010

In 2010, 93
percent of computers in Vietnam
were infected with viruses at least once during the year. The figure showed an
improvement in comparison with the previous years (97 percent), but the
improvement was significant. More than 1/3 of the computers (36 percent) were
infected with viruses at least one time a month.

USBs remain
the most popular source of viruses. 96 percent of polled computer users said
their USBs were infected with viruses at least one time last year.

2010 was
the year when  awareness of computer
security issues was improved. 93 percent of polled people said that in order to
effectively fight against viruses, they need to use copyrighted antivirus
software. If they use illegal software, they will be vulnerable when troubles
occur, because they cannot ask software producers to offer consultancy or give
technical assistance.

In 2010
when meeting troubles with computer viruses people’s actions were also quite
different from that in 2008. 49 percent of computer users said they would ask
antivirus software producers to give assistance when meeting troubles, while
the figure was 34 percent only in 2008. As such, now people know how to protect
themselves from viruses and know to use supporting services.

A good
thing that BKAV’s report has pointed out is that computer users are now
vigilant about links sent via emails or messenger clients. Only 10 percent of
people would click on a strange link.

According
to Nguyen Minh Duc, Network Security Division of BKAV, said that 67 percent of
polled people said they would track down the origins of the links sent to them,
and they would ignore the links sent to them by strangers. “This is the
advisable treatment in these cases,” he said.

Computer users have good awareness,
but don’t take actions

While
passwords can open the “world” of a person, including a personal computer or
email, 53 percent of people still do not undertake necessary measures to
protect passwords.

“Computer
users need to create strong passwords in order to avoid the risks of having
passwords stolen. Strong passwords are the passwords which have at least nine
characters with numbers, lower-case letters, block letters and symbols such as
@#$%^&*. One must not provide passwords to anyone and should change
passwords regularly,” Duc said.

A simple
solution which people can use to protect their computers is to lock the
computers when they do not use them. However, 63 percent of computer users said
they never lock their computers before leaving desks, even though the action is
simply done by pressing “Windows + L”.

Tuyet Ngan