Thailand recently established the National Cyber Security Committee to address threats to cyber security.
Chaired by prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, the committee is expected to develop a a national cyber security policy framework that will cover such issues as governance, emergency readiness, developing a national critical information infrastructure, and capacity-building.
In her speech at the 25th Annual Conference of the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) in Bangkok last week, the Prime Minister cited World Bank figures that around 30% of the world’s households and individuals have access to the internet and this trend is growing.
In Thailand, she noted that there are 24 million internet users and 87 million mobile phone numbers, out of a population of 64 million. Enhanced connectivity has led to greater trade, investment, and tourism.
However, aThai CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) report showed that nearly 800 cyber threat reports were received in 2012, including viruses and worms, as well as actions by hackers.
Without legal and technological safeguards, the potential of the digital economy cannot be realized, she said. Thus, the National Cyber Security Committee was set up to address this challenge.
The prime minister said no single country can address cyber threat alone. At the regional level, Thailand fully supports enhanced ASEAN cooperation to fight cybercrime, which is one of ASEAN’s eight priority areas in transnational crime.