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Hacker fears seen slowing Thai e-commerce business

BANGKOK: Highly publicised hacker attacks at home and abroad are likely to slow growth of Thailand's fledgling e-commerce business by spooking some potential customers, analysts and operators say.

The industry and potential clients will remain on edge as long as security breaches re-occur, they said.

Loxley Information Service (Loxinfo), a leading Thai Internet service provider, said late last week that hackers had broken into its website www.shoppingthailand.com and stolen information on the credit cards of about 2,000 customers.

Loxinfo, a unit of Loxley Plc LOXL.BK, said the hacker had reposted the information on the Web but so far the stolen credit card numbers had not been used to purchase any goods.

"Security or trust is the most important thing in e-commerce," Somkiat Tangkitvanich, a specialist at the Thailand Research and Development Institute (TDRI), told Reuters.

"This is the first time it has happened in Thailand. It raises concerns that the fledgling e-commerce industry may not grow as fast as earlier expected. People's confidence is already damaged even (though) we are at an early stage of development," he said.

Thai e-commerce revenues are poised to jump to 51 billion baht ($1.36 billion) in 2000 from an estimated 1.2 billion in 1999, according to industry estimates.

However, Somkiat said some industry estimates of the potential size of the Thai e-commerce market may be exaggerated, noting that so far there has been no accurate gathering of figures in the industry.

Despite the negative impact from Loxinfo's security breach, he said the case opened a window of opportunity for Thai computer companies looking to diversify into security services.

"As far as I know, there is no computer firm specialising in security solutions in Thailand," he said.

Vivatpong Vichit-Vadakan, managing director at Loxinfo, said the attack could make customers hesitant about buying goods through the Internet but he said e-commerce activity in Thailand would continue to grow.

He said his company had checked its security systems and would install more detection software to prevent future hacker attacks.

TDRI's Somkiat said that the government should speed up its enforcement of regulations governing electronic crime covering the Internet and e-commerce to rebuild public and business confidence in cyber trade.

"The government should give authority to officials to inspect, investigate and punish the wrongdoers." he added.

Apart from legal measures, Somkiat said the government should set up a specialised agency to look after the interest of information vendors and hunt cyber terrorists.

Thailand's Justice Ministry and Electronic Resource Centre is drafting a national legal framework to develop its electronic commerce. It is expected to be passed to the cabinet in March.

One or more computer vandals disrupted several popular Web sites last week, including Yahoo, Buy.com, eBay, Amazon.com and Time Warner. U.S. President Bill Clinton has called a summit on Internet security for next week.-Reuters