27-3-2024 (HANOI) Vietnam’s financial institutions are deemed safe from the recent cyberattack on a major brokerage, the market regulator reassured on Wednesday, following the suspension of the country’s third-largest securities firm after it fell victim to the attack over the weekend.
VNDirect, ranked third in terms of transactions handled according to the Ho Chi Minh City exchange, has remained disconnected from the trading system since Monday.
Pham Hong Son, the vice chairman of Vietnam’s State Securities Commission (SSC), stated to Reuters, “We do not see the risk of contagion,” clarifying that no other brokers had been impacted.
VNDirect refrained from commenting on when it would resume trading and the extent of damage incurred in the attack.
In a statement released on Monday, the brokerage disclosed that its “entire system was attacked by an international organization” on Sunday, resulting in its trading platform being temporarily inaccessible. However, it assured customers that their assets or data remained unaffected. Nonetheless, the company’s shares witnessed a nearly 4% decline since the week’s onset.
Regarding the identity of the attacker, the SSC declined to provide further details.
Son highlighted that there’s no necessity for additional measures to mitigate the cyberattack’s impact on trading, emphasizing that investors could utilize accounts with other securities firms.
Transaction volumes on the HCMC bourse dropped by 10% on Monday, according to LSEG, as investors utilizing VNDirect were unable to trade. The benchmark index also experienced a 1.1% decline on the same day.
Mirae Asset Securities, another brokerage, commented in a note, “Despite notable rises in some tickers, the spotlight of the day was on VNDirect’s cybersecurity breach, casting a shadow over market sentiment.”
