Week of February 22

Indonesia

U.S. raises concerns over 'made in Indonesia' smartphone law

Reuters, 24 February 2015
"The United States is pressing Indonesia to relax local-content rules it believes will handicap efforts of tech firms such as Apple to expand into one of the world’s last big markets where demand for high-end smartphone has yet to really take off. The regulation, which would come into force on Jan. 1, 2017, requires companies that sell smartphones and tablets in the fast-growing economy of 250 million people to produce 40 percent of their content locally."

Malaysia

National Security Council reviewing country’s cyber security policy

The Malaysian Insider, 23 February 2015
"CyberSecurity Malaysia and the National Security Council are in the process of reviewing and enlarging the scope of the National Cyber Security Policy (NCSP) to improve Internet security. CyberSecurity, an agency under the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry, is entrusted to ensure the security of Malaysia's cyberspace. CyberSecurity chief executive officer Dr Amirrudin Abdul Wahab said the revised policy is expected to be ready in two years."

Singapore

Singapore: Blogger’s conviction violates free speech

The Online Citizen, 23 February 2015
"A Singapore court’s conviction of a prominent blogger for contempt of court violates his right to freedom of expression, Human Rights Watch said today. Alex Au Wai Pang faces a fine and imprisonment when he is sentenced on March 5, 2015. Singapore’s parliament should revise the penal code to eliminate the archaic, colonial-era offense of “scandalizing the judiciary,” Human Rights Watch said. “Alex Au’s blogging on judicial accountability in Singapore furthers the public’s right to information,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Sending him to prison would merely highlight the injustice of Singapore’s archaic crime of ‘scandalizing the judiciary.’”"

Thailand

Thailand jails two on royal insult charge over play

Reuters, 23 February 2015
"Thailand sentenced two students to jail on Monday for 2-1/2 years for insulting the monarchy in a university play, in a case which drew dozens of activists to a protest outside the court in defiance of a ban on demonstrations."

Vietnam

Google Access Is Disrupted in Vietnam

Wall Street Journal, 23 February 2015
"Access to Google Inc. ’s Vietnam website was disrupted briefly Monday, the company said, with some users redirected to a website appearing to sell a service used for cyberattacks. “For a short period today, some people had trouble connecting to google.com.vn, or were being directed to a different website,” a Google spokesman said. “We’ve been in contact with the organization responsible for managing this domain name and the issue should be resolved.” The spokesman stressed that users’ searches and Google services, like Gmail, weren’t compromised. Users within Vietnam reported that service disruption lasted several hours."

Elsewhere in Asia

Nepal: Cyber security conference kicks off

Republica, 21 February 2015
"International Conference on Cyber Security and Cyber Law 2015 kicked off in Kathmandu from Friday. Information Technology Security Emergency Response Team Nepal (ITSERT-NP) is organizing the first of its kind event in Nepal to discuss crucial issues related to cyber crime and law, online financial security, incident handling, security standard and new emerging threats, among others."