‘South-east Asia vulnerable to cyber-terrorism’

Yean Yoke Heng from the Kuala Lumpur-based Southeast Asian  Regional Centre for Counter-Terrorism said at a security conference  that the region was not properly prepared for a high-tech assault.

"The threat is real and we are vulnerable," he told reporters.

"It’s not a question of how or what, it’s only a question of when." Terrorists could go online to steal social security numbers,  funds from bank accounts and shut down power plants and banks, he  said at a forum attended by experts from across the region and the US.

"Even if one were to exclude the risk to life and limb, the  economic losses caused by any destruction caused by a cyber attack  would be very severe."

Rohan Gunaratna from Singapore’s Institute of Defence and  Strategic Studies said that regional terrorist outfits were not yet capable of mounting such an assault, but that they were avid users of the Internet.

Groups including the Jemaah Islamiyah network, which is linked  with al-Qaeda, are using the Internet "as a medium to create a new  generation of radicalised Muslims that are vulnerable to recruitment  by terrorist groups," he said.

He told reporters that terrorist groups were using the Internet  "very effectively to distribute propaganda, to recruit, to raise  funds and to co-ordinate terrorist attacks." "It will take a very long time for Southeast Asian groups to  develop the capabilities to attack the Internet," he said.

"Instead of attacking the Internet, they are using it to promote  their organisation, their aims, objectives and goals." Gunaratna urged governments to work more closely on the issue,  saying that there is currently "a lack of understanding."

"Unless Southeast Asian countries work together with the Western  nations, they will be lagging behind," he said.

INet-Bridge