SANS Institute and ETDA-ThaiCERT Collaborate to Build Thailand's National Cybersecurity Competency

• Focusing on 5 Critical Success Factors

BANGKOK, Oct. 21, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The US-based SANS Institute, the most trusted and largest source for computer security training, certification and research worldwide and the Electronic Transactions Development Agency (Public Organization) (ETDA), of which the Thailand Computer Emergency Response Team (ThaiCERT) is a lead unit, announced the establishment of a partnership to facilitate Thailand's cybersecurity competency development.

An MOU indicating the collaborative intentions of both organizations was signed on Monday, October 21, by Mrs. Surangkana Wayuparb, Chief Executive Officer of the Electronic Transactions Development Agency (Public Organization) and Mr. Mason Brown, Chief Executive Officer and Director of the SANS Institute. The objective of the collaboration between SANS and ETDA is to build national cybersecurity competency by increasing the number of skilled professionals to help defend and protect the Kingdom of Thailand's critical information infrastructure.

The following issues have been identified in a preparatory discussion as key success factors in developing the Kingdom of Thailand's cybersecurity capabilities:

• Finding the right candidates who will possess the baseline skills and potential to succeed in the program
• Training content that is technically current, with a reliable and proven process for continual updates
• Identifying instructors with proven mastery of technical skills and extraordinary teaching abilities
• Demonstrating that students actually master class materials by evaluating hands-on demonstrations of the required capabilities
• Establishing cadres of talent in Thailand capable of independently carrying out program objectives and developing a pipeline of talented people to ensure sustainability of success

"Cyber attacks are an ever-evolving threat landscape and it is vital that security professionals in the Kingdom of Thailand are provided with hands-on training to prepare them for real-world attacks and how to react when a breach occurs," Mr. Brown said. "ETDA has a deep understanding of the five critical success factors and is demonstrating an impressive commitment toward closing the gap to enable Thailand to play a key role in regional cyber leadership."

"To combat cyber threats effectively, we need to increase our human resource pool and raise the competency level of Thai IT security professionals to achieve world standards. Partnering with SANS, a highly capable global information security training institute, will help facilitate the process and give us a head start in the right direction," said Mrs. Wayuparb, CEO, ETDA.