Asean countries urged to address cybercrime

SINGAPORE – To prevent major cyber attacks in banks and corporate systems, a top Singaporean government official has appealed to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to enhance cooperation to strengthen capability to combat cybercrime.

David Koh, chief executive of Singapore’s Cyber Security Agency (CSA), said there is a need to enhance cooperation within Southeast Asia due to the crossborder nature of cybercrime.

Southeast Asia is the major target of cyber attacks in recent years. The CSA cited the $81-million cyber heist at the Bangladesh Central Bank, which money trail led to the Philippines.

“In ASEAN, we need to have a consensus, we need to agree on what we can do,” Koh told visiting reporters attending the five-day 8th ASEAN-Singapore Journalists Conference last week.

In a briefing at the CSA headquarters, Koh cited the major challenges being dealt with by Singapore and the ASEAN to prevent cyber attacks. Singapore has been working diligently on how to fight cyber terrorism within the territory with the creation of the CSA in 2005.

He said cyber attacks using ransomware had affected many companies in Singapore, Philippines and Malaysia early this year.

He also stressed the importance of looking into the vulnerabilities of each country and improve their capabilities to fight cyber attacks.

“The ASEAN cooperation in different countries is a challenge,” he added.

Koh is looking forward to a more proactive response after the 10-member bloc adopted last Nov. 13 the ASEAN declaration to prevent and combat cybercrime.

The ASEAN declaration cited the importance of information and communications technologies as the key driver of ASEAN member-states in governance, economy, commerce and trade, social well-being and other aspects.

In adopting the ASEAN declaration, the bloc also took cognizance of the importance of having national action plans, which will contain policies and strategies to prevent and combat cybercrime.

The leaders also vowed to strengthen international cooperation among member-states based on common interests and not limited to the technical expertise needed to tackle cybercrime.

Challenges

Koh explained the different levels of challenges in combatting crossborder cybercrime.

“The first level of challenge is awareness. Different countries need to understand if it’s a real problem or not a real problem… The next challenge is international cooperation,” Koh said. “So, if you look at cyber, it is not just an ASEAN problem. It’s a worldwide problem. The big countries have their own problems or agenda.

“Sometimes in ASEAN, we all want to work together, (but) it is not easy. Then you have the superpowers, they have their own ideas of what they want to do. I think it makes things even more challenging.”

He said the challenge faced by ASEAN nations is coordination on three levels.

“Within the country, there is a need for coordination. Second level is coordination within the ASEAN... The boundaries are different countries. The power of the ministries is different. Sometimes, your ministry talks, the other person does not want to listen,” Koh said.

He underscored the need for every country to recognize the magnitude of cybercrime and how it could affect every nation in terms of economy and trade.

The Singaporean government on its own initiative rolled out the S$10-million ASEAN cyber-capacity program.

“We are technology advanced. And after we talk so much, we do something and put the money on the table and we will help. We start with $10 million, it is not a large sum of money but at least we can start the work,” Koh said.