HCMC – Some Vietnamese financial institutions today, March 1, began terminating digital banking services on mobile devices that fail to meet stringent security standards.
This move follows the enforcement of Circular 77/2025 issued by the State Bank of Vietnam, which aims to harden defenses against a surge in sophisticated cyber-fraud and AI-driven attacks. Major lenders including BIDV, Vietcombank, VietinBank and Agribank have notified customers that their mobile banking applications will now automatically shut down or refuse access if any security vulnerabilities are detected.
This technical barrier is specifically designed to neutralize unauthorized attempts by hackers to seize control of user accounts through compromised hardware or software environments.
Under the new mandate, banking applications will trigger an automatic session termination if they identify devices running debuggers, emulators, virtual machines or those with the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) enabled. The security protocols also target app tampering such as instances where an application has been illegally modified, injected with malicious code, monitored via API hooks, or underwent repackaging.
Furthermore, the restrictions apply to any device with a compromised operating system, including those that have been rooted for Android, jailbroken for iOS, or have an unlocked bootloader, as these modifications effectively bypass the core security architecture of the device.
Another highlight of this regulation is the heightened requirement for banks to implement Level 2 ISO 30107-compliant biometric liveness detection, ensuring that authentication systems can distinguish between a living person and sophisticated spoofing attempts like deepfakes. To maintain uninterrupted access to transfers and payments, security experts urge users to disable developer options, remove any system-level modifications, and cease using screen-sharing features while banking.
This tightening of technical standards marks a critical upgrade in the banking sector’s risk management, establishing a fundamental bedrock for protecting assets and maintaining public trust in the digital banking ecosystem of Vietnam.
