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Building and developing safe and healthy information society in Vietnam
Building and developing safe and healthy information society in Vietnam
12/12/16
Along with the rapid and
continuous development of information and communication technology, the world
has been transiting to information society. This process has caused
increasingly new challenges to people, businesses and regulatory bodies. It is
an important and urgent demand to develop and implement an effective programme
of action to build and develop a safe and healthy information society in
Vietnam at present, contributing to the cause of industrialization,
modernization and international integration.
Development trend
The arrival and coverage of the Internet since the 1990s of the
20th century has created a real information revolution. Over the past 20 years,
the number of Internet users in the world went up 90 times from 35 million to
more than 3 billion. At the same time, the number of mobile phone users
increased by 60 times from 80 million to approximately 5 billion. According to
statistics, at present, every two days, an information volume equal to that
from the appearance of human civilization to 2003 is produced.
It is possible to say that the Internet is the common development
trend of the scientific and technological time. Thanks to the Internet people
have opportunities to access to global colossal data which has been updated
hourly and daily from all corners of the world. Information on the Internet is
rich, diversified, facilitate contacts and information exchange among people,
and promote knowledge economy, democracy, transparency in society. The Internet
has brought about many benefits to social life, offering various services such
as education, online learning opportunities, search for jobs and business,
creating competitiveness among businesses, contributing to administration
reform, bringing about certain effectiveness to state management though building
and developing e-government, e-commerce, e-transaction, electronic newspapers
and reviews, social network and other platforms on the Internet.
By 2025, most of the world population estimated to reach 8 billion
by that time will be able to access to the Internet by palm-sized devices. The
acceleration of information society development has become the common trend of
countries in the world to boost socio-economic development, and sustainable
prosperity.
The Internet by nature has created a cyber society similar to real
life in which people interact, contact, and share information daily. Like real
life, the cyber society has also drawbacks. Countries which have been familiar
with state governance in real life have been confused with new, “non-traditional”
challenges of cyber social governance. Some “non-traditional” prominent
differences of cyber society include:
First, cyber society is
global without borders as in real life. All real life activities are regulated
and managed by law. National laws are effective only within the border of a
country.
Second, unlike in real
life, due to the open nature of the Internet netizens (users) can easily hide
their real names.
Third, the cyber society
is highly interactive, and timely; information is continuously and constantly
produced, shared, disseminated, transmitted instantly on the global scale and
much quicker than other traditional communication forms of real life.
To address these “non-traditional” challenges, many countries in
the world have studied and implemented two versions of policy with two
different thinking of governance, one for the real life and the other for the
cyber information society.
However, cyber governance is not a simple issue and there is no
precedence. In the history of social development, thousands of years are needed
to complete governance institution while the cyber information society has just
operated for recent decades.
The Internet in Vietnam
The Vietnamese Party and State have set great store by boosting
application and development of information technology in socio-economic
management and development. Along with the promotion of information technology,
the Internet, e-government, e-commerce, social networks and other traditional
communication platforms on the Internet have strongly developed, contributing
to enhance quality and effectiveness of information, communication, people’s
knowledge and meeting people’s increasing demands for information and cultural
enjoyment.
However, after a period of development, the Internet drawbacks
have made obvious impacts on several aspects of social life in Vietnam
including negative effects such as fraud webs, fabricated information, images
and texts which do not conform to Vietnamese customs and habits, virus, and
harmful software. Not only people but organizations, agencies, and businesses
providing online services on the Internet have also affected in terms of
economy, credibility and reliability.
Seriously still, national digital interests and
sovereignty have also been threatened. Hostile and reactionary forces
have taken advantage of the Internet to besmear individuals, incite public
opinion, conduct espionage and intelligence in an attempt to sabotage national
defense and security. Many countries in the world have considered cyber space
as the fifth development space beside land, ocean, sky and air spaces.
In the context of Vietnam at present, it is possible to see that
if in real life the role of the State and State management encourage positive
elements, give warnings, handle violations and breaches and maintain social
order, traditional measures of state management are no longer suitable for
cyber governance.
The key reason is the social network infrastructure has been
managed and operated by foreign multinational corporations with equipment and
hardware scattering all over the world. Traditional management measures of
Vietnamese regulatory body such as license, inspection, control and removal of
contents are inapplicable in most of the cases. Technical intervention such as
blocking, screening of access requires costly investment and is not effective
while causing negative social response and affecting international integration.
In addition, the Internet as a transborder tool has rendered traditional measures
ineffective.
In such a circumstance, one of the primary priorities is to seek
for a relevant solution for information society governance, in line with
international practices and Vietnamese context, turning challenges into
opportunities for“a safe and healthy information society.”
Experience and historical lessons show that when it comes to
resolve a big problem, the Vietnamese have arrived at solutions that are
flexible and suitable to internal conditions. In a short period of 3-5 years,
it is not feasible to construct a Vietnamese social network to replace foreign
one. The guiding principle in the short-term and medium-term strategies is to
bring into play creativeness from regulatory body and businesses.
The regulatory body should study and look for creative solutions,
mechanisms and policy for users and businesses, including transborder service
providers in line with Vietnamese law. These mechanisms, policy and regulations
must create an equal competitive “playground” for businesses, not causing difficulties
to domestic businesses. Businesses must uphold creativeness and start up,
taking specific advantages of Vietnam to boost digital information resource
development.
Concrete Programme of Action
A concrete Programme of Action to implement a safe and healthy
information society must consist of clear direction and objectives, combine
harmoniously the long-term strategy with immediate urgent solutions including
renovation of point of view and settlement of problems in conformity with the
current situation.
Development point of view
The cross-cutting guiding viewpoint of the Progamme of Action is
developing a safe and healthy information society of Vietnam, contributing to
safeguard national sovereignty, promote international cooperation and
integration in information and communication technology, heighten people’s
knowledge, orient culture and lifestyle and push up economic development.
Within Vietnam’s territory the social network in particular and the Internet in
general must subject to Vietnam’s sovereignty jurisdiction. Vietnam’s
legislation should be respected and strictly abided by. Vietnam’s regulatory
body must also accordingly build capacity of law enforcement.
Concrete objectives
Building on the guiding orientation, concrete objectives are
limiting negative impacts of the Internet, protecting Internet users in Vietnam
from threat and risks of unsafe information on the web, improving Internet law
enforcement, Internet governance and administration by law, building a reliable
web environment as a foundation for further information technology application
and online transaction.
Long-term tasks and solutions
The Programme of Action sets out three groups of medium- and
long-term tasks and solutions as follows:
First, continue to
complete the legal corridor, facilitate related organizations and individuals’
activities as a basis for competent authorities to exercise web governance and
administration in line with international practices and Vietnam’s context.
Second, strengthen
synchronous implementation of guiding documents of the Party, programmes,
projects, plans on information technology application and development and
information security approved by the Government and Prime Minister.
Third, mobilize resources
and participation of the whole society, especially businesses, communication
organizations and media in building Vietnam’s safe and healthy information
society.
Urgent tasks and solutions
Beside groups of long-term tasks and solutions, the Programme of
Action advances four groups of urgent tasks and solutions as follows:
First, improve capacity
in management, establishment and operation of a system to collect, synthesize
information and timely discover sources of dissemination of illegal information
on the web to assist competent authorities in monitoring and handling. Set up
mechanism to timely and effectively share information between competent
authorities and telecommunication and internet service providers and
communities in coordination and handling cases of dissemination of illegal
information on the web. Establish and put into operation a system to assist
Internet users.
Second, develop digital
information resources. Set up community columns in some big social network with
attractive content to concrete target audience to attract users’ participation.
Provide official information on the web, especially social network in
association with close administration and execution of content on official
websites according to law. Develop Vietnam’s social network for more users’
participation. Make available other products and services, taking advantage of
the Internet connectivity in Vietnam.
Third, support and
establish community. Put in place a simple and convenient liaison mechanism
ready for users to report on sources which disseminate illegal information,
harmful to individuals and organizations to competent authorities. Build and
popularize regulations and code of conduct for Internet users in Vietnam, form
behavioural culture, share healthy information, condemn and boycott activities
that run counter to community and national interests on the web. Expedite
communication, guidance and popularization of skills to safely and affectively
use the Internet.
Fourth, coorperate with
international law-enforcement bodies in preventing risks to information security
from Vietnam and to Vietnam. Cooperate with transborder information service
providers, especially businesses-owners of social networks much used in Vietnam
to set up focal points for coordination in handling cases of disseminating
illegal information, share information, provide guidance on policy, orient
investment activities, and improve transborder information service in Vietnam.
Coordinate with international organizations and businesses in providing skills
for safe use of transborder products and services.
To realize the above-mentioned groups of tasks and solutions, it
is imperative to maximize social resources, participation of businesses and
society, administration and operation capacity of businesses to ensure thrift
and effectiveness.
The computer network and the Internet are among human achievements
of great influence, ushering in a new stage with outstanding progress in the
world. In the era of digital technology, Vietnam is facing opportunities and
challenges. Under the leadership the Party and management of the State, Vietnam
has had certain favourable conditions by laying initial foundation for
development. Thus, Vietnam must accelerate application and development to take
maximum advantage of technology while maintaining political, cultural, economic
and social stability of the country. The development and implementation of the
Programme of Action on a safe and healthy information society to concretize the
Party lines, State policy and law with constructive spirit will help expand development
space, uphold resources, promote creativeness for national sustainable
development.
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All comments [ 10 ]
We want to promote the development of Vietnamese products and services for information security to be used domestically towards a safe and secured information society for all organizations and individuals.
Network attacks in Vietnam have become more sophisticated with rises in scale, number and quality, especially those targeting big businesses.
Information security globally has seen complicated changes as many Internet of Things (IoT) devices were attacked on a large scale, causing serious problems.
In Vietnam, a legal framework on network security is nearly completed.
Information security is expected to experience more complicated changes in the upcoming time. The situation is also seen in Vietnam.
The Vietnam Information Security Association also announced the Vietnam Information Security 2016 Index at the event. For the first time, the index reached 59.9 percent in 2016, increasing 13.5 percent from last year.
The Information Security 2016 Index has seen sustainable growth. This has shown increasing awareness of investment for information security among organisations and companies.
Cyber security is a business risk. Managing cyber security requires a risk-based and enterprise-wide approach.
The first step in managing cyber security risk is understanding your current state. Cyber security is the responsibility of everyone in organisations
Information and communication technologies serve as an important driving force, helping to ensure the countryrsquo;s growth and sustainable development, raise transparency in activities of state agencies and save the time and funds for agencies, organizations, enterprises and people.
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