3/4/22, 1:38 PM Managing a digital revolution: cyber security capacity building in Myanmar - Routledge Companion to Global Cyber-Security Strategy culprit. The recent democratization has changed the relationship between the two countries as Myanmar looks for other international engagements, and until very recently enjoyed improved relationships with western states (Maini & Sachdeva, 2017). This makes the choices and trajectory of the Myanmar cyber security approach in the years to come an interesting case in how developing states will place themselves within the increasingly contested battle on how to define cyber security. Stating which direction Myanmar will take is so far rather premature, as the approach and strategies are too underdeveloped to be accurately defined, a point we will turn to next. Official policies and legal framework In general, the approach to cyber security' in Myanmar is at a start-up stage, with an ad-hoc approach to capacity and blind spots in both official policies, regulation and competencies to deal with the challenges posed by digitalization. Some initial discussions and needs- assessment exercises have been run, but there is currently no official national cyber security strategy, few cyber security units in the public departments, and weak coherence in sets of policies across the ministries. This can partly be traced back to the newness of digital technologies in Myanmar, the revolutionary uptake of mobile connectivity in later years has necessarily led to a lag in political activity. Partly the general political upheaval of post-junta Myanmar has meant a flurry of political activity' wherein digital regulations has not been given prominence. Finally, the issues of Myanmar in managing digital technologies politically could be seen as a symptom of a larger trend wherein developing nations are struggling to provide digital security in a rapidly shifting technological environment. The most clear-cut example of the inability' to provide sufficient security is the lack of a cyber security strategy or any overarching coherent framework for guiding the work on cyber security'. While a draft strategy has been under development for a long time, being the work of the Ministry of Transport and Communications in cooperation with the Asian Development Bank, no finalized version exists as of yet. Beyond the non-existence of an actual framework, the process with which the strategy was developed involved a small number of https://ebrary.net/173520/political_science/managing_digital_revolution_cyber_security_capacity_building_myanmar#aftercont 8/19