Thailand telecoms regulator cracks down on hackers

Thailand telecoms regulator cracks down on hackers

Thailand's telecoms regulator and central bank have joined up to fight cyber crime.

Thailand's telecoms regulator and the central bank announced a partnership to improve cybersecurity for electronic transactions via mobile phones.

The service is planned to be operational in December Takorn Tantasith, secretary-general of the regulator said yesterday. Measures including a  finger scan will be introduced to try to protect mobile users from fraudsters.

The regulator National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission also plans to examine the service fees telecoms operators charge customers.

Thailand is experiencing strong growth in mobile usage, averaging 73 percent year-on-year since 2011. The cooperation of these two organizations will support the country's electronic payment policies and strategy.

Thai commercial banks also announced on Wednesday a plan to offer a new money-transfer system, PromptPay, Veerathai said. PromptPay, which was a new version of the AnyID scheme, is an attempt by the authorities to usher in a Thai cashless society.

PromptPay will enable people to use national ID or mobile phone numbers for payments to buy goods and money transfers, and it opens for registration on July 15. Services start on October 31.

The launch of high-speed 4G mobile services is the main driver pushing up growth in mobile banking and electronic commerce in Thailand a government spokesperson said.

Thailand, the second-largest smartphone market in Southeast Asia, has imported more than 77 million smartphones since 3G services were launched by operators in 2013, Takorn said.

The country, which has approximately 103 million mobile numbers, is expected to import 16 million to 17 million smartphones this year. This is slightly lower than the 20 million imported last year. 




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