Off the wire
• 1st LD Writethru: Japan's core machinery orders up 1.3 pct in November  • Co-branded Myanmar-Japan debit card to be introduced in Myanmar  • (Sports)Oz cricketer Brett Lee announces retirement  • Tasmanian forest to be opened for tourism: media  • Tokyo stocks soar by break on weaker yen, crude rebound  • Commentary: Due attention should be given to terrorism in Africa  • 1st Ld: China banks' 2014 new yuan lending hits record high  • S.Korea's central bank revises down 2015 growth outlook  • Urgent: China's new yuan loans up to 9.78 trillion yuan in 2014  • S.Korea posts trade surplus for 35 months  
You are here: 　 Home

Computer virus costs Vietnamese users 400 mln USD in 2014: survey

Xinhua, January 15, 2015 Adjust font size:

Vietnamese users lost almost 400 million U.S. dollars in 2014 due to malicious software programs, or virus, a local Internet security firm (Bkav) said on Thursday.

The total damage done by virus amounted to 8.5 trillion VND, or 396.12 million U.S. dollars in 2014, local Tuoi Tre (Youth) News reported, quoting the Bkav's latest survey findings announced on its website.

The loss was calculated on the income of the victims and amount of time their work was disrupted by malware issues, said the firm, adding that each computer user in Vietnam would lose an average of 1.23 million VND (57 U.S. dollars) to malicious software in 2014.

Currently, Vietnam has at least 6.98 million computers in use across the country, according to data from the Vietnam's White Book 2013 on informatics, computers and technology.

Bkav also released a brief recap on Internet security in Vietnam in 2014, upon which 90 percent of mobile phone users in Vietnam are regularly bothered by SMS spam, with 43 percent of them receiving at least an unwanted message a day.

According to the firm, virus that spread via USB devices and fake apps are also threatening Vietnamese users.

Eighty-three percent of computers in Vietnam were infected with viruses spread via thumb drives at least once in 2014, whereas only 13 percent of the respondents said they paid attention to the makers before downloading their apps. Endi