As digital transformation accelerates worldwide, cyberspace has become vital to the economy and society — but also a high-risk arena for data theft, fraud, ransomware, and infrastructure attacks.
A silent war is unfolding on a global scale, requiring international collaboration and harmonious legal frameworks to protect digital sovereignty, assets, and trust.
According to the United Nations, cybercrime falls into two groups: the use of technology to commit traditional crimes like human trafficking, money laundering, and hate speech incitement, and network-dependent crimes like fraud, identity theft, malware distribution, and extortion.
Taking advantage of anonymity and global connectivity, cybercriminals could carry out cross-border attacks with unprecedented speed and efficiency. Developing nations are particularly vulnerable due to limited awareness and inadequate protective capabilities.
Dr. Vu Viet Anh from the Cambridge Cybercrime Centre under the University of Cambridge’s Department of Computer Science and Technology said that new forms of crime have emerged with the Internet, while traditional crimes have gone online. The rise of AI and anonymous cryptocurrencies has made money laundering and other offences easier than ever. He stressed that unlike conventional crime, cybercrime is not constrained by borders or legal corridors with loopholes.
According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), loss due to attacks against cyber systems is a drain on Governments and enterprises. The first half of this year saw 208 ransomware attacks targeting government agencies, a 65% surge from the same period last year. Attacks such as the one on Collins Aerospace, a provider of check-in and boarding systems on September 19, or the UK’s National Health Service in June 2024 demonstrate that damage extends beyond financial losses to directly threaten human lives, disrupting over 10,000 medical appointments and causing at least one patient death due to treatment delays.
A report from Cybersecurity Ventures projected that global cybercrimes will cause 10.5 trillion USD in annual damage this year, more than triple the 2025 figure. The amount could even reach 15 trillion VND by 2029, equivalent to the world’s third-largest economy.
Beyond economic devastation, the psychological toll of cyberattacks is also severe. AI is blurring the line between the real and the fake. Attacks deploying deepfake to bypass identify vertification shot up more than 700% in 2023. In the US, 16% of identity theft victims were reported thoughts of suiside, reflecting the profound mental health consequences of cybercrime.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Duc Son from the School of Electrical Engineering, Computing, and Mathematical Sciences under Curtin University, Australia, noted that cybercrime has become a matter of national security, undermining countries’ prestige and social trust.
According to Fortinet, a US-based cybersecurity solution and service provider, criminals are leveraging AI and automation to conduct 36,000 scans per second, looking for security vulnerabilities. Last year, over 100 billion stolen records were shared on underground forums, a 42% increase from the previous year.
Experts forecast that cybercrime will grow more sophisticated, able to break through current encryption systems, with the rise of quantum computing, metaverse, 6G network, and brain-computer interface.
In Vietnam, in every 220 smartphone users fell a victim to scams, with total losses estimated at 18.9 trillion VND (717.4 million USD), according to a survey in 2024 by the National Cybersecurity Association. Nearly 46% of agencies and businesses reported having experienced cyberattacks, with 15% suffering ransomware. Total cyberattacks in the year topped 659,000, an alarming level.
With technological advancement, cybercrime has evolved beyond isolated incidents into a sophisticated shadow economy infiltrating every aspect of life. Addressing this challenge requires a global strategic approach with consistent legal standards and effective coordination mechanisms, alongside data sharing, enhanced awareness, increased investment, and strengthened public-private partnerships.
Sam Rubin, a specialist from Polo Alto Networks – an American multinational cybersecurity company, said that AI is both a threat and a tool supporting security teams to detect and make prompt response to attacks. He laid stress on the need to shift to a proactive defence strategy as well as adopt zero-trust security models and continuous risk management to stay ahead of hackers.
Cyberattacks have threatened the economy and human trust, opening up a new front in the silent war of the digital age. In a globally connected world, only strategic cooperation, information sharing, and public awareness improvement could help build a safe and sustainable digital space for all./.VNA