Half each were corporate executives and State officials.

The awards, given by IDG, look for and honour outstanding individuals who are responsible for information management and security to ensure business continuity, minimise business risks and maximise business opportunities at enterprises and governmental and civic organisations.

Fourteen executives were conferred the coveted ASEAN CIO/CSO Awards in HCM City, all of them Vietnamese. (Photo: tienphong.vn)

The awards have been given annually in Vietnam since 2005.

On the same day, IDG in collaboration with the CEO&CIO Club held a conference on issues concerning IT and information security and with the theme “The evolving role of CIO: Enhancing management efficiency and risk management.”

In a presentation, Le Thanh Tam, CEO of IDG ASEAN, spoke about the results of a survey on the role of CIOs at businesses.

“Around 27 percent of enterprises think that using IT would make their business run more efficiently.”

Project management and introduction of new technologies are believed to be the two biggest benefits of IT, it found.

However, though 81 percent considered IT security one of the most important aspects of their IT development strategy, 41 percent spent less than 5 percent of their IT budget on security.

“Only 5 percent of enterprises are thinking about improving security,” Tam said.

Eighteen percent actually want to cut their IT budgets while 28 percent would like to “simplify” their IT applications.

“The role of IT in enterprises has not received enough attention.”

Demetris Booth, regional head of Cybersecurity Product Management & Evangelism (APJC), said: “Lack of cyber security restricts innovation in the digital era.”

Each enterprise should adopt their own digital risk strategy to counter and mitigate risks encountered by digital initiatives, he added.

The awards and summit, the only event of their kind in ASEAN, are organised together with the Vietnam Government Information Security Committee, several ministries, and the HCM City government and supported by the Vietnam Computer Emergency Response Team and National ICT Development Authority – Cambodia.