Thailand to train 10,000 cyberwarriors for under-protected govt agencies
The National Cyber Security Agency (NCSA) has asked Thai universities to train 10,000 “cyberwarriors” to work for government agencies, the NCSA chief said on Thursday.
Amorn Chomchoey said the agency will cooperate with over 20 universities to launch cybersecurity courses to train up an army for Thailand’s defence.
The NCSA is poised to sign a memorandum of understanding with private and public universities, the Labour Ministry and cybersecurity firms to offer the new programme to graduate students.
The programme will be open to new and unemployed graduates who want to improve their chances of employment in the online security field, Amorn said.
“Thailand still lacks personnel with cybersecurity knowledge, especially in government agencies,” he said.
“A recent survey found that of 460,000 civil servants nationwide, only 0.5% are officials in charge of IT for their agencies.”
Worse still, he added, not all government IT officials are computing graduates, despite being responsible for official websites and cyber security. The IT personnel were also overloaded with work, meaning government websites and computer systems could be poorly protected against hacking.
Amorn said the NCSA is also asking cybersecurity companies to offer internships to students under the new programme.
The internships will focus on cloud security in line with the government’s “cloud first” policy.
He added that the NCSA would help finance cyber studies for poor students, who might be permitted to take government student loans.
