The rising trend of global cybercrime has prompted the Thai government to add more IT security professionals to man government agencies coping with cyberattacks here.
The Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA), a public organisation, signed an agreement with the International Council of Electronic Commerce Consultants (EC-Council), the world's largest certified IT security training centre, to receive help in teaching Thai IT security professionals at government agencies.
ETDA's office of security director Soranun Jiwasurat said under the agreement, the ETDA will receive scholarships worth a combined US$120,000 from the EC-Council to train 40 government officers in ethical hacking and computer forensic skills.
The first 40 trained officers will become instructors to help train professionals at other state agencies. For the first year, ETDA plans to train up to 500 IT security officers.
Currently there are 400 EC-Council-certified personnel in Thailand out of Asean's pool of 15,000.
This is considered small compared with the few thousand IT security professionals in Singapore and Malaysia.
Last year, Thailand reported 795 trillion baht in e-payment transactions and 680 billion in e-commerce transactions.
"Having enough IT security professionals will ease security threats, as hackers will target weak IT security countries and groups," said Mr Soranun.
Wilson Wong, the EC-Council's managing director for Asia-Pacific, said demand for global cybersecurity professionals has risen by 3.5 times over the past five years, faster than demand for other IT jobs and 12 times faster than for all other jobs.
Mr Wong referred to a study by PwC Thailand that said 35% of Thai firms had security breaches in 2012.
Cyberattacks will become more complex in the next five years, he said.
Developed countries such as the US are increasing cybersecurity budgets in preparation for cyberwarfare.
Gp Capt Prasong Praneetpolgrang, an adviser to the ICT minister, said in the next two months the newly formed National Cyber Security Committee chaired by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra will consider approval of the 2013-17 National Information Security Master Plan.
The plan is meant to strengthen Thailand's capacity to counter cyberattacks for the purpose of economic stability and national security while protecting privacy and enhancing international cooperation.
Estimated to cost 80 million baht, the master plan will include training at a certified testing centre to raise the number of security professionals.
The centre will lower training costs compared with training abroad.
As well, the National Research Council is providing 50 million baht to research institutions that develop information security projects.