(Dan Tri) - Mr. Vu Ngoc Son is the chief architect of nTrust software, a recently launched anti-online fraud tool. Talking about anti-online fraud, Mr. Son said that there will be many challenges ahead.
Online fraud targeting internet and mobile phone users in Vietnam is becoming increasingly common, with many sophisticated tricks, causing great property damage to people.
The software is installed on smartphones called nTrust with installations for Android phones and installations for iPhone phones.
Mr. Vu Ngoc Son, Head of Technology and International Cooperation, National Cyber Security Association, is known as the Chief Architect of this useful anti-fraud toolkit.
Hello Mr. Son, first of all, congratulations to the Association for successfully launching the nTrust anti-fraud software. How long did it take to research and prepare for this software?
- As soon as the 2024 operational plan was approved by the National Cyber Security Association at the end of December 2023, in which the task of developing anti-fraud software for people was focused, the Technology and International Cooperation Department immediately began analyzing, designing and selecting technologies and solutions to implement the project.
At the Cyber Fraud Prevention Workshop organized by the Cyber Security Association on May 13, the software was first introduced to the public. After the workshop, we invited more than 100 volunteers to participate in testing and contribute ideas to the product.
The development team worked closely with volunteers, absorbing and editing the software according to feedback for about 02 months. The final version was released on July 30 on 2 app markets Google Play (for Android phones) and App Store (for iPhone phones).
So, from the time the project was conceived to its launch, we had about 7 months of continuous, active work.
Where does the project get funding from, sir?
- This is a non-profit project, not using state budget, funded by partners who are member technology companies of the Association.
The development team of 15 people, from many different companies, mainly connected, exchanged and worked remotely. In about 5 months, they completed the internal test version (Alpha).
Some members that have made active contributions include Viettel's infrastructure, the staff and engineers of Vietnam National Cyber Security Technology Joint Stock Company (NCS), and a number of other experts and partners.
As of now (August 8), the software has been launched for more than a week. Do you have any preliminary statistics? Has the software prevented any online fraud?
- After 1 week of launch, there have been more than 100,000 application downloads from 2 stores Google Play and App Store, the number of regular users is 85,000 people, this shows that the software has initially been positively received by users.
Up to now, there have been more than 25,000 reports of account numbers, phone numbers, and websites suspected of being involved in fraudulent and harassing activities, continuously enriching the software's fraud database.
In the early days, the number of spam phone number reports was very large, then it gradually decreased. In particular, each day the software reported that 7-8 users found out that the account number was fraudulent, which meant that they stopped their transactions (did not transfer money to the fraudulent account number - PV). With 85,000 users (each user is a mobile subscriber - PV), the software detected 7-8 fraud cases, if we calculate the total market, the number of fraud cases is certainly much larger.
I hope that the nTrust community will continue to expand in the future, thereby being able to promptly prevent fraudulent calls that steal property, which is very good for society.
Could you please share the new technologies applied in this software? What are the outstanding advantages of the software compared to other software on the market, as well as what are the disadvantages that need to be overcome or added? How does the software work, does it run in the background on the device, causing battery drain?
- The software development team has carefully researched 24 forms of fraud as well as the combinations of variations that scammers have used in Vietnam.
We realize that the subjects constantly change the form of fraud, apply the latest technology, operate in an organized, cross-border manner, so finding an anti-fraud solution for people is not simple.
We aim to identify important checkpoints, so that no matter what scenario the scammers follow, they must pass through these checkpoints.
The software will help people check for signs of fraud, increase the ability to detect and prevent the risk of money being stolen. Accordingly, the selected checkpoints include checking phone numbers, website addresses (links), checking account numbers, scanning for malware and checking QR codes.
The software must connect online to the fraud database to check according to user requests, so to serve the number of users that can be up to millions, the server system and checking and searching algorithms need to ensure high performance.
At the same time, users are diverse, have different skills and technology levels, so the application must be really simple and easy to understand, so that users can use it without much guidance.
There are many different technologies that we have applied, but the general principle is that anything complex and computationally demanding will be pushed to the center, prioritizing technologies and algorithms that can be processed compactly on the phone.
The central processing system will apply big data and high performance technologies. The software running on the user's phone is designed to be compact, lightweight, save memory, and not drain the battery.
Currently on the market, to be able to check for scam and annoying phone numbers, as well as scan for malware (with Android operating system), users will have to download many different software, and pay fees ranging from 150 thousand to 1 million VND for 1 year of using each software.
With nTrust anti-fraud software, users only need to install one single software, completely free, to use all the features. Of course, in case users have other needs, they can still install the free nTrust software and other paid software in parallel if they want. nTrust is designed to not cause any software conflicts on the phone because it only requires minimal permissions.
One of the biggest challenges for the development team right now is that it is not possible to bring the malware scanning feature to the iOS version. Due to the operating system manufacturer's policy, no software is given a mechanism to check other software, so currently on the App Store, we will not see software with the malware scanning feature.
In case Apple changes its policy, we will add this feature to the iOS version.
Fraudsters often target gullible people who have little access to technology and mass media. Currently, there are millions of users using 2G phones and basic 4G devices that do not support the application installation feature. What support plans does the National Cyber Security Association have for these cases?
- The goal of launching nTrust software is to build a community to prevent fraud. In this community, people with many skills and access to new warning information will help people with less skills and less exposure to technology.
In the family, young people will be the ones who can quickly approach and support their parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles to install and use the software.
In agencies and organizations, technology-savvy staff can help older colleagues or those with less exposure to technology install and use software.
Fraudsters always apply the latest and most modern technologies, so users also need to equip themselves with tools to protect themselves. To do this, they must rely on the community and cannot fight against dangers alone.
We hope everyone uses the software, experiences the features and spreads it to their loved ones so that together we can be safe when participating in cyberspace.
For 2G phones or phones that do not support installing additional applications, users can ask someone else who has installed the nTrust application to manually enter phone numbers, account numbers, and web addresses for checking.
In recent times, anti-fraud measures from regulatory agencies such as standardizing telecommunications subscribers, disseminating and guiding on personal data protection, and most recently requiring biometric authentication have gradually narrowed the scope of activities of fraudsters. How do you assess the development of fraud in the coming time, new forms, new variations...?
- Synchronous measures from legal regulations, technological solutions to propaganda and awareness raising in recent times have had initial effects in fraud prevention.
However, the fight against fraud is a war between people, so there will continue to be new variations of fraud.
Experience from countries around the world also shows that it is only possible to minimize, but not completely eliminate, forms of fraud in cyberspace.
We have also anticipated possible scenarios in the future, however, providing information to the media also needs to consider what is appropriate, avoiding "drawing a path for the deer to run".
We believe that each user still needs to be a soldier in the anti-fraud front.
Users should not trust instructions from unknown sources, not install strange software from unofficial links, not transfer money to subjects without clear verification, regularly improve knowledge and skills, update the latest information about new forms of fraud to proactively prevent them.
Thank you for the chat!
Dantri.com.vn
Source: https://dantri.com.vn/suc-manh-so/bi-mat-dang-sau-ung-dung-bat-song-ke-lua-dao-online-tai-viet-nam-20240810164638755.htm
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