With Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) being key contributors to the Malaysian economy, two experts discussed secure digitalization and recovery at a media webinar entitled “Road to Recovery for Malaysian SMEs – The Roles of Cybersecurity” held on Feb 22, 2021.
Yeo Siang Tiong, general manager for Southeast Asia at Kaspersky shared that cybersecurity should be the greatest concern of Malaysian SMEs that embark on digitalizing their businesses, regardless of the size of their business.
“While governments and financial organisations are quick to offer grants and schemes to help this crucial segment stay afloat during the current Covid-19 pandemic, our experience showed that technology is the key for SMEs to survive. We fully understand that investment cuts are being done by business owners but it’s worth noting that cybercriminals are also lurking online. Digitalisation with cybersecurity in mind will always be the best step towards protecting and keeping your cash flow,” said Yeo.
According to Yeo, the Kaspersky Security Network (KSN) reported some 767,000 business owners in Malaysia were almost infected with internet-borne malware last year.
In the first half of 2020, there were also 269,533 phishing attempts targeted against Malaysian SMEs, with 56% increase over the same time period for 2019, while there were 238,780 cryptomining attempts, nearly twofold increase over the first half of 2019.
To help SMEs to safeguard against cyber risks in this challenging time, Kaspersky recently introduced a new solution called the Kaspersky Endpoint Detection and Response Optimum (KEDRO).
“KEDRO goes beyond endpoint protection. It delivers full visibility and empowers SMEs’ limited IT staff to conduct a root-cause investigation and to quickly and intelligently respond against complex and costly threats. We have made this solution as simple to operate as possible, acknowledging the challenge of finding internal IT experts and most importantly, budget-friendly as we are aware of the pandemic’s financial impact to businesses in Malaysia,” added Yeo.
William Ng, central region chairman of the Small and Medium Enterprises Association Malaysia (SAMENTA) urged SMEs to invest in cybersecurity protection by applying for funds under the SME Digitalization and Automation Grant Scheme offered by the government to help SMEs affected by Covid-19 to digitalise their business operation and achieve business recovery.
“The value of making investments is in the business’ future during an economic slump, not after. If you look at post-recession recoveries in the past, what companies choose to invest into their businesses has played a big role in how weak or strong they fared after a crisis,” said Ng.
