Thailand leads ASEAN into a secure digital future

Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs envisions ASEAN as ‘seamlessly connected’ and cybersecurity will contribute to that vision. As the chair country of ASEAN, Thailand aims to advance the community towards a future that includes a digital ASEAN. Based on that vision, Thailand has been stimulating progress and debate amongst ASEAN member states, all with the message that there is an urgent need to speed up development to cope with the fourth industrial revolution. “Digital vulnerabilities have been widely exploited by criminal groups. Promoting cybersecurity must be a "whole of nation endeavour and at the regional level, requires a whole of ASEAN approach,” commented Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, Chaisiri Anamarn said at a conference in May 2019. In February 2019, Thailand passed the Cybersecurity Act to protect the country's critical information infrastructure (CII). CIIs refer to computers and computer systems used by government agencies or the private sector to protect national security or provide essential services, such as finance and banking, energy and healthcare. This list will be eventually expanded to cope with cybersecurity threats more effectively.