Govt approves 350 million baht to develop cyber security personnel

BANGKOK, May 10 (TNA) – The government approved the budget of 350 million baht to develop cyber security personnel in the first meeting of the committee for the preparation of cyber security policy, chaired by the prime minister. Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-ocha chaired the meeting at Government House yesterday with the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society and agencies concerned. Digital Economy and Society Minister Pichet Durongkaveroj said the meeting mapped out the framework to cope with modern cyber security threats for six branches of IT infrastructure. The six branches include national security, information system, transportation, public health, banking and finance, stock market and energy. Thailand was selected to be the host the establishment of the Asean-Japan Cybersecurity Capacity Building center, which will be officially opened in June. The setting up of centre will help Thai personnel to gain more experience in the field. The budget of 350 million baht was approved to develop 1,000 cyber security personnel. Pichet expects that Thailand will be ranked in top 20 in the international cyber security assessment. Meanwhile, Gen Prayut instructed the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society and the Electronic Transactions Development Agency to speed up making two bills - the Cyber Security bill and the Personal Data Protection bill into the law. The prime minister reiterated the Personal Data Protection bill must be put in effect first to facilitate trade in accordance with the international standard. The meeting also agreed to establish a temporary cyber security agency before the law will be issued to reduce risks from cyber attacks. (TNA)