Speaking at the Road to Recovery for Malaysian SMEs “The role of cybersecurity” webinar, Yeo Siang Tiong, General Manager for Southeast Asia at Kaspersky shared that across the Southeast Asia region, 8-in-10 SMBs expected a decreased revenue for 2020 as early as May last year.
“While governments and financial organisations are quick to offer grants and schemes to help this crucial segment stay afloat, our experience showed that technology is the key for SMBs to survive. We fully understand that investment cuts are being done by business owners, but it is worth noting that cybercriminals are also lurking online.”
In response to that, the recent survey commissioned by Kaspersky found that 767,000 business users in Malaysia were almost infected with internet-borne malware in 2020. 269,533 phishing attempts were targeted against Malaysian SMEs in H1 2020, 56 percent more than previous year.
238,780 cryptomining attempts were targeted against SMEs in H1 2020, almost a twofold uptick compared with previous year.
On average, a single data breach can cost as much as RM400,000 to an SME in Southeast Asia (SEA).
William Ng, Central Region Chairman at Small and Medium Enterprises Association Malaysia (SAMENTA) said, “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.”
During the media brief, Kaspersky also emphasised on continuous safe online habits and suggested some tips for companies to securely rebuild their business. This includes backups and to regularly update the solution.
Alternatively, Kaspersky has initiated its Kaspersky Endpoint Detection and Response Optimum (KEDRO), a new solution for SMEs in the SEA region. KEDRO complements endpoint protection by providing full visibility and the ability to apply root cause analysis, for a complete understanding of the company and defense status against advanced threats.
“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,” Yeo added.
