The government aims for Thailand to reach 20th in the next Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI), improving from 22nd out of 194 countries in the 2017 survey.
The improved ranking is meant to ensure greater efficiency of the cybersecurity ecosystem to help with the government's digital transformation roadmap.
The GCI, determined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), is a multi-stakeholder initiative measuring countries' commitment to cybersecurity. The index is analysed using five criteria measuring legal, technical, organisational, capacity building and cooperation.
The Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) last week with Cisco for collaboration on intelligence sharing as well as training and workshops. The pact aims to enhance the digital knowledge skills in the public and private sectors to handle increasingly sophisticated cyberthreats.
The MoU has no expiry date.
Pichet Durongkaveroj, the digital economy and society minister, attended the MoU signing and said the collaboration hopes to create some 1,000 cybersecurity professionals within the first year of cooperation.
"The partnership also serves the five-year national cybersecurity strategic plan (2018-22), focused on dynamic collaboration, creating awareness of cybersecurity in both public and private sectors, and protecting the country's critical information infrastructure," he said.
Asean governments have made cyberthreats a critical priority for years, as fraud, scams, hacking, system attacks and the use of malware for cybercrime, destruction and even terrorism are increasing.
Thailand's cybersecurity ranks third in the index in Asean after Singapore and Malaysia.
The national cybersecurity committee, chaired by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, is pushing the development of a long-term cybersecurity ecosystem.
The panel outlined four categories of cybersecurity development to improve efficiency in line with international standards. The four comprise creating a centralised plan for coping with cyberthreats, reducing risks, determining the country's critical information infrastructure and improving the standard operating procedure to handle emergency cases.
The country must also develop skilled personnel to work on cybersecurity at both the internal and regional level. They will function as centralised operators before a National Cybersecurity Agency is founded.
Thailand was chosen to become the hub for Asean cybersecurity training to improve digital skills for security-related agencies in the 10 member countries by 2021. This decision was made via a consensus of the Asean Telecommunications and IT Ministers Meeting in Cambodia.
Surangkana Wayuparb, chief executive of the ETDA, said the collaboration with Cisco will create a more efficient Thai CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team), a unit of the ETDA that handles cyberthreats.
As of the first half this year, Thai CERT reported 461 cases of online fraud, or 37.9% of all threats, followed by 457 intrusive attempts (37.6%), 224 intrusions cases (18.4%) and 65 malicious code cases (5.3%).
"The ETDA hopes the leading expertise of Cisco, especially in network security and Internet of Things security, will generate a practical training programme such as AEGIS (Awareness, Education, Guidance, and Intelligence Sharing) for the public and private sectors," Mrs Surangkana said.
Apart from the AEGIS programme, Vatsun Thirapatarapong, country manager of Cisco Thailand, said Cisco will collaborate with the ETDA to create new cybersecurity analysts through the Cisco Networking Academy and Critical Information Infrastructure industry workshop.
Cisco also plans to support the ETDA through Threat Intelligence, one of the largest commercial threat intelligence teams in the world, consisting of world-class researchers, analysts, data scientists and engineers.
