The government must implement policies for information security in parallel with the development of the digital economy, says Trend Micro (Thailand), a Tokyo-based security software firm.
“The development of a digital economy needs to promote a greater awareness of cybersecurity risks, especially among public agencies,” said Khongsak Kortrakul, senior manager for technical services.
He said the government had become a prime target for hacker groups who were stealing data for their own gain.
“2016 will be the year of online extortion in Thailand, given the potentially increasing online service activities stemming from the digital economy and the availability of fourth-generation service,” Mr Khongsak said.
Fighting cybercrime will become a global collaboration to respond to the threats of the borderless world.
Mr Khongsak said hackers were targeting data they could sell to the underground market.
Over the past three years, user names and passwords for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn were worth about 1,000 baht per account.
Hacking credit-card numbers was popular five years ago, but now they are worth only about 35 baht per account.
Mr Khongsak said smart-device failure would be lethal in 2016, particularly for appliances such as internet TV sets.
Incidents of mobile malware are expected to number 20 million globally this year, driven mainly from China.
Mr Khongsak also said 2016 would see a sharp increase in crypto-ransomware infections, with more new approaches to lure victims.
Country manager Piyatida Tantrakul said cybersecurity spending had continued to increase thanks to greater
awareness among the public and
enterprises.
The Thai unit expects to see a 30% increase in revenue this year, helped by the proliferation of hybrid cloud computing that uses a mix of on-premises, private cloud and third-party, public cloud services.
Telecommunications, the government and medium-sized enterprises are the three sectors with high spending potential on cybersecurity.