Cybersecurity in ASEAN An Urgent Call to Action

Cybersecurity in ASEAN: An Urgent Call to Action

Cybersecurity governance and policies are undeveloped in the region. National cybersecurity

strategies have been laid out by Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. A few

countries have set up national agencies to consolidate and coordinate cybersecurity agendas.

These include Singapore (Cyber Security Agency of Singapore), Malaysia (CyberSecurity

Malaysia), and the Philippines (Department of Information and Communications Technology).

Indonesia has established a national cyber and encryption agency, Badan Siber dan Sandi

Negara (the Cyber Body and National Encryption Agency), and Thailand has proposed a national

cybersecurity committee. Although other countries do not have dedicated agencies, their

national computer emergency response teams (CERTs) or computer security incident response

teams (CSIRTs) currently play the role of national cybersecurity agencies.

The lack of sector-specific governance and policies is a region-wide issue, resulting in limited

transparency and a lack of sharing of threat intelligence. One exception is the Monetary

Authority of Singapore and the global Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis

Center, which have announced plans to set up the Asia Pacific Regional Intelligence and

Analysis Center. This platform aims to provide deeper capabilities in cyber intelligence

gathering and analysis for enhanced in-region support, specifically for financial services.

Although Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam drafted cybersecurity bills in 2017, limited

progress has been made across the rest of ASEAN. Cybercrime laws have also been passed in

Initiatedor

proposed

Advanced

Sources: government websites, press clippings; A.T. Kearney analysis

International

cooperation

Awareness

building

Capacity

building

Figure

Cybersecurity policies vary widely across the ASEAN region

National strategy

development

Legislation

Governance and

operational entities

Sector-speci ic

focus

Absent

Nascent

Established

Singapore

Malaysia

Philippines

Thailand

Indonesia

Vietnam Rest of ASEAN

Laos, Brunei,

Cambodia,Burma

(Myanmar)

Vietnam,Indonesia,

Philippines, Thailand Malaysia, Singapore