Indonesia, 31 August 2022 – ASEAN Foundation today announced 11 local civil society organisations (CSOs) and social enterprises (SEs) from across ASEAN will support the implementation of the ASEAN Cybersecurity Skilling Programme in combating cybercrimes in the region, in collaboration with Microsoft.

The 11 CSOs and SEs will lead the selection of 560 individuals from Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam who have background in IT and science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and transform them into cyber literacy master trainers. In the identification and selection process, the CSOs and SEs will apply gender-inclusive approach to ensure that there is a good female representation in the master trainer line-up.

The master trainers will then be tasked to deliver cyber literacy empowerment sessions in the form of training to 30,000 underserved youths in the seven countries, ensuring inclusivity of ethnicity, gender and disability. These ‘empowerment sessions’ will run for a total of 10 hours, divided into a couple of days. In delivering the training, the CSOs and SEs will harness a comprehensive learning module on cybersecurity created by ASEAN Foundation in partnership ASSIST Creative Lab. 

Below is the list of the 11 CSOs and SEs that will learn to combat cybercrimes in the region, through the ASEAN Foundation network:

• Passerelles numériques Cambodia, Cambodia
• ASEAN Youth Organization, Indonesia
• Bullyid Indonesia, Indonesia
• Indonesia Mengajar, Indonesia
• Girl Guides Association Malaysia Malaysia
• Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia
• CGPH Incorporated, the Philippines
• YGOAL,Inc., the Philippines
• Girl Guides Association Singapore, Singapore
• Social Technology Institute, Thailand
• Ai Viet Social Enterprise, Viet Nam

“Congratulations to the ASEAN Foundation for building an ecosystem of skilled cybersecurity talent, partnering with 11 civil society organisations and social enterprises in seven markets. The fundamentals of security, compliance, and identity are foundational and mandatory as digital transformation leads to increased digital threats, requiring cyber security professionals and we’ve seen that the shortage of talent is most profound in APAC. Our collaboration with the ASEAN Foundation creates the first step in building a robust cybersecurity talent pool in APAC, and we are proud to work with an organization that is equally grounded in a mission to empower every person with skills to not just survive, but thrive,” said Supahrat Juramongkol, Philanthropies Lead for Microsoft in APAC.

“The fight against cybercrimes in ASEAN is a fight that can only be won with the support of key stakeholders from the private, government and public sectors. The role of these 11 civil society organisations and social enterprises will be pivotal in strengthening our effort to nurture a stronger cyber literacy among the people of ASEAN,” said Dr. Yang Mee Eng, the Executive Director of ASEAN Foundation.

Launched in February 2022, the ASEAN Cybersecurity Skilling Programme is a regional initiative implemented by ASEAN Foundation in collaboration with Microsoft that aims to combat cybercrimes by raising awareness about the importance of cybersecurity and building greater cyber literacy among the people of ASEAN.

The programme consists of focus group discussions (FGDs) involving key stakeholders of ASEAN, training of master trainers, awareness raising campaign on cyber literacy and development of a new learning module titled “Introduction to Cybersecurity.” The learning module is formulated based on the insights obtained from FGD, and it will be embedded into the Future Ready ASEAN platform (www.futureadyasean.org). Additionally, the “Introduction to Cybersecurity” module will be localised into different ASEAN languages to ensure better accessibility for youth from across the region.

The ASEAN Cybersecurity Skilling Programme also perfectly embodies the commitment of ASEAN leaders to combat cybersecurity threats as stated in the ASEAN Declaration to Prevent and Combat Cybercrime in 2017, which highlighted cyber threats as a fundamental problem that needs to be solved together. Furthermore, the programme will also support the priorities of ASEAN Work Plan on Education 2021 – 2025 and ASEAN ICT Masterplan 2020.