DES eyes setting up Financial Security Centre
The Digital Economy and Society (DES) Ministry is planning to establish a centre to monitor and prevent illegal financial transactions within three months, highlighting the government’s efforts to tackle cybercrime problems.
DES Minister Prasert Chantararuangthong said on Thursday that the Financial Security Centre forms part of the three main policies he intends to implement immediately. These are: cybercrime prevention and suppression, establishing a digital government, and using technology to improve the quality of life of all Thais.
Thursday (Sept 7) marked Prasert’s first day in office. He is Thailand’s 16th DES minister since the ministry was established in 2002 during the Thaksin Shinawatra administration under the name Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
“Scammers in the form of call centre gangs and fake news spreaders have been causing damage to the public, and we intend to increase our efforts to stop them,” he said.
Prasert noted that the Police Cyber Taskforce (PCT) under the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau is not providing sufficient coverage of cybercrime monitoring, which is why the Financial Security Centre will step in to support officials.
By using AI technology to monitor financial transactions and detect suspicious or illegal activities, the centre will help ensure wider coverage and increased cybercrime prevention, he said, adding that the centre should be up and running early next year.
Earlier on Thursday, Prasert also said that the ministry would not act on his predecessor’s threat to end Facebook services in Thailand due to its repeated failures to deal with fraudulent ads.
Instead, he would instead seek a meeting with Facebook executives to discuss Thailand’s concerns on the matter.
He explained that there were as many as 45 million Facebook accounts in Thailand and most Thai users benefit from the proper use of the social media platform.
