Project 06 drives Vietnam’s digital transformation

Vietnam is moving rapidly to embed biometrics into its national digital identity framework, with multiple government initiatives reshaping how citizens interact with public services, banks and telecom providers.

The Ministry of Public Security’s Project 06 is central to this transformation, consolidating fragmented population records into a unified National Population Database. By late 2025, the system contained 107 million citizen records that are connected with 15 ministries and 34 localities, and had processed more than 2.1 billion authentication requests, reports Vietnam Net.  

Alongside this, over 76 million chip-based citizen ID cards have been issued, integrating health insurance, driver’s licenses and banking credentials into a single identity document. VNeID has expanded to 67 million accounts, with daily usage peaking at 5.7 million visits for services such as vehicle registration and electronic household records.

The launch of the National Data Center in 2025 added another layer, centralizing state data management and integrating 157 million records from 16 national and specialized databases. The center has been referred to as the “brain” of Vietnam’s digital transformation, streamlining administrative procedures and supporting socio-economic planning.

Biometric adoption has also accelerated in the financial sector. Since 2025, banks and state agencies have expanded fingerprint, facial and voice recognition to strengthen governance, reduce fraud and improve transparency. 

Dr. Nguyen Quoc Hung, VP and secretary general of the Vietnam Banks Association, has emphasized the importance of accurate identity verification for credit allocation, tax collection and anti-money laundering, while noting that privacy and data protection remain critical concerns.

Most recently, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) has circulated a draft regulation that would require continuous biometric verification of mobile subscribers. The proposal links facial recognition directly to the National Population Database and mandates re-authentication when users switch devices, aiming to close loopholes that allow SIM card resale and fraud. It also introduces strict requirements for Presentation Attack Detection (PAD) to counter spoofing attempts using deepfakes or masks.

“PAS standards will serve as a critical shield against increasingly sophisticated attacks,” said Vu Ngoc Son, head of research at Vietnam’s National Cybersecurity Association (NCA). “Low tolerance for false acceptance and high accuracy thresholds ensure that biometric data truly represents the real person behind each subscription,” Son told Voice of Vietnam. 

Authorities argue that lifecycle biometric verification could disrupt fraud supply chains and reduce telecom-enabled cybercrime, though telecom operators could face significant challenges in securing biometric databases and ensuring reliable performance. Cybersecurity specialists recommend encrypted biometric templates, multi-layered defenses, and strong access controls, while warning that fraud may shift to social media and messaging platforms as SIM-based scams become harder.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  continuous authentication  |  digital ID  |  e-ID  |  facial recognition  |  identity verification  |  Project 06  |  Vietnam  |  VNeID