4 draft digtal laws ready for Cabinet as govt boosts cybersecurity

The government will also set up two new agencies in support of a digital society. 
Moreover, the Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA) has teamed up with Cisco (Thailand) to boost the skills of 1,000 security professionals, experts and security personnel. 
Pichet Durongkaveroj, minister of Digital Economy and Society (DE) ministry said the ministry will submit to the Cabinet the Cyber Security Act, Data Protection Law, Electronic Transaction Law and the law on the establishment of Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA). It will then be forwarded to the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) for a final approval before a government announcement to the public in the second half of next year.
He said the laws will create confidence in e-payment transaction and online shopping in the public and private sectors . 
Surangkana Wayuparb, executive director at ETDA, said that to support the new laws, the government will also set up two new agencies - Data Protection Agency and National Cybersecurity Agency, within this year. In the first phase , the two agencies will oversee the Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA).
The Data Protection Agency will protect data privacy, receive order and tackle illegal data piracy. 
The National Cyber security Agency aims to be the communication centre and data hub of cybersecurity in the country. It will also help to solve and prevent cybersecurity in the country. 
She said that the two agencies will help fight illegal data priacy and cybersecurity breaches . It will create confidence for both foreign and local investors and lead to a sustainable and efficient business environment in the long term. Moreover, the National Cybersecurity Agency will also create confidence in the cybersecurity infrastructure of the Thailand 4.0 scheme. 
The agency has joined forces with Cisco (Thailand) to develop and leverage security skills for 1,000 security professionals, experts and security personnel. Cisco will also provide and transfer security knowledge and knowhow to the Thailand Computer Emergency Response Team (ThaiCERT), which is the Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT) and provides an official point for dealing with computer security incidents in local Internet community.
Meanwhile, Thai CERT under the ETDA, will receive cybersecurity threat alerts and data worldwide from Cisco's Awareness, Education, Guidance and Intelligence Sharing centre so that it will able to rapid solve the problems.
Naveen Menon, Cisco president/Asean said that under the unique collaboration with ETDA, the firm will provide knowhow and knowledge related to cybersecurity to the Thai authorities. It will also provide cybersecurity information and threat intelligence to the ETDA team. 
The team is also able to get directly cybersecurity data from Cisco Talos Intelligence Group, which is the company’s commercial threat intelligence team staffed with around 500 security professionals and experts worldwide. As such, ETDA and Cisco will be able to set up protection against attacks and malware before they penetrate the networks.
Meanwhile, Vatsun Thirapatarapong, country manager of Cisco (Thailand) said that the long term collaboration will develop around 1,000 security experts, professionals and workforce next year, under the training of Cisco Networking Academy and Critical Information Infrastructure Workshop for Industry (CII Workshop).
ITU has reported that last year Thailand ranked No 22 in the Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) among 194 countries. 
The government plans to improve Thailand’s ranking in the Global Cyber security Index to No 20 in the near future through the development of national security policy, critical information infrastructure and standard operating procedure (SOP). 
The government is focusing on six sectors: government services, financial services, telecom, transportation and logistics, energy and utilities, as well as healthcare. 
ThaiCERT has announced the top three cyber threats facing Thailand: fraud, 461 cases or 37.9 per cent; followed by intrusion attempts, 457 cases or 37.6 per cent ; and intrusion - when a hacker takes control of the operation system and website, 224 cases or 18.4 per cent.