Even if each individual agency requires just one network administration and security expert, the country is estimated to lack tens of thousands of qualified people in this field.
According to recent research on expert demands and an IT human resource shortage in the Asia-Pacific region conducted by the market study company IDC with the assistance of Cisco Systems, Vietnam currently lacks about 800 professional internet experts. This figure is expected to increase to 1,900 people by the end of 2009.
This shortage is attributed to the fact that Vietnamese universities do not currently offer degrees in information security and, as a result almost all IT graduates do not have the skills to meet businesses information security demands.
To address this problem, many IT training centres have actively launched internet security courses. The Hanoi University of Technology’s Bach Khoa Internet Security Centre (BKIS) is now offering training courses for all members of the public, instead of only for officers of Ministries of Defence and Public Securities as before.
The Hanoi-Aptech Centre has officially launched an advanced network administration programme for those who want to become senior internet security experts in large organisations and business enterprises.
The establishment of the Vietnam Information Security Association (VNISA) and VNISA’s southern branch recently, which aim to offer information security training to the staff of organisations and businesses, as well as individuals, is considered one of the effective measures being taken to address the shortage of internet security professionals.
In order to raise awareness of the importance of information security among enretprises, VNISA will organise the 2008 Vietnam Information Security Day in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City on November 11. The event is expected to strengthen the contact between the State, society and enterprises in this field.
According to BKIS, in 2007, Vietnam had over 33 million computers infected with viruses and hundreds of websites hacked, causing a total estimated loss of 2.3 trillion VND (140 million USD).