Vietnam suffered 57,389 ransomware attacks in 2022, the third-highest in Southeast Asia following Indonesia and Thailand.

The region recorded a total of 340,904 ransomware attacks targeting businesses last year, General Manager of Kaspersky for Southeast Asia Yeo Siang Tiong told a press briefing in Ho Chi Minh City on March 14.

Ransomware is a type of malware that locks a computer and mobile device or encrypts electronic files. To obtain the “decryption” key or retrieve data, a ransom is sought by the cybercriminals behind the attack.

Digital kidnappers are targeting enterprises in Southeast Asia, Mr. Yeo said, and the trend is forecast to continue increasing this year and see more complicated attacks.

Source: VnEconomy

Now Ho Chi Minh City-based Medigo is planning to grow its telehealth ecosystem with $2 million in new funding by East Ventures, with participation from Pavilion Capital and Touchstone Partners.

The new capital will allow Medigo to expand its remote doctor consultations, medicine delivery services and home testing services, including blood tests, urine tests and pregnancy tests.

Medigo’s app connects users to nearby licenses pharmacies and delivers medicine within 20 minutes. It currently has 1,000 pharmacy partners in Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s three biggest cities, and will began expanding to Tier 2 cities, like Binh Duong, Vung Tau and Hai Phong, this year.

The startup’s CEO and co-fouder Ha Le began working on the app after he had trouble finding fever reducers for his daughter in the middle of the night. “When I was in university as a software engineer, I never thought that working in the healthcare space would be the center of my daily life, but now, it is my life’s mission,” he told TechCrunch.

Medigo has plenty of competitors, including Doctor Anywhere, Jio Health, Edoctor, Long Chau, Pharmacity and Rightnow. Le said Medigo differentiates by working with pharmacies that are open around the clock so it is able to operate 24/7 consistently. It also plans to connect different providers, so users can have more choices on the same platform.

In a statement about the investment, East Ventures managing partner Koh Wai Kit said, “Digital technologies can improve the accessibility and affordability of good quality healthcare. We are excited by Medigo’s mission to revolutionize pharmacies and healthcare services in Vietnam.”

Source: TechCrunch+

The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) recently reported positive results for the cybersecurity sector in the first quarter of 2023.

Specifically, the sector posted revenue of 252.8 billion VND (10.6 million USD) during the period, an increase of 33.5% year-on-year, resulting in a growth of 33.1% to 20.22 billion VND.

It contributed 21.8 billion VND to the State budget, up 50.6% over the same period last year.

According to the ministry, there are 103 cybersecurity enterprises operating in the industry during the period, a rise of 12% on-year, creating 3,492 jobs, up 10.6%. And the rate of domestic to foreign earnings reduced by 10.1% to 45.1%.

By the end of February, the total number of issued public digital certificates jumped 23.18% to nearly 5.87 million. Of which, the active ones rose 17.89% to approximately 1.9 million in February alone.

Its digital certificate status maintaining fees contributed an accumulated value of 10.79 billion VND to the State budget since the beginning of the year.

In the second quarter of 2023, MIC plans to create strategies to fulfil information security platforms for users both in Vietnam and foreign countries.

It also cooperates with the Committee on Science, Technology and Environment to complete the Law on Electronic Transactions and implement other tasks according to the guidance document No 652 in 2023.

Source: Vietnamplus