Southeast Asia may be seeing high adoption of online services, they lack behind in cybersecurity

Southeast Asia is the region with the highest growing adoption rate for internet users, and yet it has a lack of cybersecurity specialists.

The number of internet users in the region is expected to hit 480 million by 2020, a significant increase from 2016 when there were 260 million users, according to a report from Khmer Times. This rate represents around four million new users every month.

Despite this, countries in Southeast Asia only spent around 0.06 GDP, around $1.9bn, on cybersecurity, it said. This is half the global average of 0.13 per cent.

There is a global shortage of cybersecurity professionals, which Cybersecurity Ventures estimates could reach 3.5 million by 2021.

To help counter this, and support the ASEAN region, CyberSecurity Malaysia has a target of creating 10,000 security professionals – it has already made 9,199, it claims. In addition to this, the company CEO Abdul Wahab said Cambodia should learn from Malaysia’s approach to cybersecurity. The company offers a range of innovation-led services, programmes and initiatives aimed at reducing the vulnerability of digital systems.

The company is hoping to support nurture local talent through globally accredited certifications, leveraging existing practitioners for real-world training, the article reports.

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