http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archiv
es/2006/05/23/2003309631
KUALA LUMPUR
AP
May 23, 2006
Southeast Asia will inevitably face an Internet-based attack
by
terrorists against key institutions, even though militant
groups lack
the technical savvy so far, security experts said yesterday.
Developing nations remain especially vulnerable to a cyber
assault
because they haven't built up defenses for their computer,
banking and
utility systems, said Yean Yoke Heng, deputy director
general of the
Kuala Lumpur-based Southeast Asian Regional Center for
Counterterrorism.
"The threat is real," Yean told reporters at the
start of a regional
cyber security meeting. "Definitely, we are vulnerable
.... It's not a
question of how or what; it's a question of when. So we
better get our
act together and be prepared for this eventuality."
Regional authorities currently have no specific information
about
possible threats, which could include the hacking of public
networks
or the spread of a computer virus, but "it's always
good to be one
step ahead of this terrorist threat," Yean said.
The five-day conference, which brings together security
officials and
analysts from Malaysia, the US, Japan, Cambodia, the
Philippines,
Singapore and Thailand, will discuss how governments can
prevent
terrorists from exploiting information technology.
So far, Southeast Asian militant groups such as the
al-Qaeda-linked
Jemaah Islamiyah network have mainly used the Internet to
channel
propaganda, recruit members, raise funds and coordinate bomb
attacks,
said Rohan Gunaratna, a Singapore-based militant expert.
"It will take a very long time for Southeast Asian
terrorist groups to
develop the capability to attack the Internet,"
Gunaratna said. "For
now, groups such as Jemaah Islamiyah are using the Internet
as a
medium to create a new generation of radicalized
Muslims."
There are more than 1,000 jihadist Web sites in Southeast
Asia,
Gunaratna said. He said captured Jemaah Islamiyah suspected
leader
Riduan Isamudin, or Hambali, used the Internet to
communicate with
operatives involved in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed
202 people
in Indonesia.
Despite no evidence of an imminent cyber attack, Southeast
Asian
authorities should still study how technologically advanced
governments in the US, Europe and Australia are safeguarding
digital
assets from terrorist exploitation, Gunaratna said.
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