Commercial banks across Vietnam are safe from the Heartbleed bug, the vulnerability that has sent thousands of Internet banking websites and online payment services worldwide scrambling over the week, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) announced late Thursday.

“Banks have now finished reviewing their OpenSSL software and fixing the bugs, so their systems remain normally operational and customers can feel safe using their services,” the SBV said in a statement.

OpenSSL is a commonly used software platform for encrypted transactions at "https" websites that Internet users have been taught to trust, according to AFP.

The Heartbleed flaw lets hackers snatch packets of data from working memory in computers, creating the potential for them to steal passwords, encryption keys, or other valuable information.

Upon receiving the information that Internet banking websites across the globe are falling prey to the massive bug, banks in Vietnam have taken immediate action to update their OpenSSL to the latest version, according to the SBV, the country’s central bank.

It was earlier reported that 15 Vietnamese online banking websites and payment gateways have been compromised by hackers using the infamous Heartbleed exploit.

But the SBV has dismissed that report, elaborating that banks had submitted their reports to it saying their systems are all clean.

“Checks by VietinBank and the BKAV security firm found that our OpenSSL is safe from hackers,” Tran Cong Quynh Lan, director of the Informatics Center under VietinBank, told Tuoi Tre on Thursday.

Vietcombank and Asia Commercial Bank representatives also said their platforms were unharmed by the Internet security flaw but their customers have also been warned to stay cautious in making online transactions.

Some Vietnamese banks, such as Sacombank and Tien Phong Bank, do not use OpenSSL software and thus are totally safe from the risk.

Internet security firm BKAV has introduced a tool to check if a website is affected by Heartbleed at http://sslscan.bkav.com.vn/ and recommend that people do the check before making any online transactions.

It also urged website administrators to upgrade their OpenSSL to the latest version of 1.0.1g to stay safe from the bug.

Hacker Vietnam Association, a prestigious Vietnamese hacker forum, also recommended another site-checking tool at http://filippo.io/Heartbleed/ via a post on its Facebook on Friday.

Heartbleed poses a risk for around 500,000 servers and more than 600 million websites using OpenSSL around the world, according to tech websites.

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