Kaspersky shares best practices with SAMENTA to secure SMEs’ assets during the pandemic

2 October 2020 Kaspersky teams up with Small and Medium Enterprises Association Malaysia (SAMENTA) in an effort to bring cyber awareness to its members and employees.

The workshop session, hosted online by Kaspersky for SAMENTA’s members and employees, focuses on understanding the monetary aspects of cyberthreats to Malaysian small and medium enterprises (SMEs), identifying the common vulnerabilities in the SMEs eco-systems, finding the right professional security solutions, and deploying integrated cybersecurity practices amidst the current pandemic situation. 

Globally, COVID-19 has wreaked havoc economies, hitting hard the SMEs. To survive the unprecedented challenges the pandemic brought about, SMEs embrace digitalisation to keep their businesses afloat. The increased online transactions also open opportunities for cybercriminals. 

According to Kaspersky’s latest statistics, cybercriminals targeting small and medium businesses (SMBs) in Southeast Asia (SEA) spent their months seeding phishing emails proactively. The global cybersecurity company’s anti-phishing software applications prevented 1,602,523 phishing attempts against companies with 50-250 employees, a 39% increase compared with the same period last year.

During the online session, Kaspersky team shared that, in the first half of this year, Kaspersky has foiled the most phishing attempts in the region against SMBs in Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam. Singapore tolled the fewest phishing emails in the region, but still witnessed an increase of 60.5% compared with the same period last year.

Speaking on the initiative for Malaysian SMEs, Yeo Siang Tiong, General Manager for Southeast Asia at Kaspersky says, “We are very much eager to align our promos and programs with the SMEs’ needs in Malaysia. This sector has been battered by COVID-19 and we have to help them as much as we can in protecting their assets. It is important for us to hear, first-hand, the challenges SMEs face in terms of cybersecurity, to allow us to figure out how we can assist them better. We are honoured to partner with SAMENTA on this initiative and we believe that with secured tools and right knowledge, SMBs can survive this pandemic,” says Yeo Siang Tiong, General Manager for Southeast Asia at Kaspersky.

Both entities joined forces to achieve their mutual goal of preparing and enhancing the skills of SAMENTA members to be able to secure their networks and systems as they drive towards further digitalisation.

Datin Lorela Chia, Chairman, Central Region at Small and Medium Enterprises Association Malaysia (SAMENTA) says, “SMEs have been pushed to accelerate digitalisation in the past few months as they shift to WFH culture and cloud-based solutions. Many have re-engineered internal processes, with some mapping out their automation blueprint ready for implementation in stages. Security policies and procedures must be implemented to reflect the shift. Many of our members are aware of the importance of cybersecurity but few are confident that they know how to analyze and address cyber risks. With our partnership with Kaspersky we hope our members can protect their businesses securely, identify attacks, assess risk levels and develop a response plan in the event of intrusion. We are happy to address the cybersecurity gap among SMEs with Kaspersky.”

At the online event, the SAMENTA members learnt the various technologies and solutions from the global cybersecurity company – Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business and Kaspersky Automated Security Awareness Platform (ASAP).  Kaspersky also offers SAMENTA members and their employees special packages of Kaspersky Antivirus, Kaspersky Internet Security, and Kaspersky Total Security. 

On top of that Kaspersky also acknowledges the challenges being faced by all SMEs in Malaysia, thus, giving a buy 1 year license get 1 year license for free promotion for its unparalleled endpoint solutions which include:

• Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business
• Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Cloud and Cloud Plus
• Kaspersky Security for Microsoft Office 365
• Kaspersky Hybrid Cloud Security.

More information about this regional promotion can be found here: link.

Among the tips Kaspersky shared in the session with the SMEs to avoid being lured by cybercriminals through phishing are:

• Teach employees about the basics of cybersecurity. For example, not opening or storing files from unknown emails or websites as they could be harmful to the whole company, or to not use any personal details in their passwords. In order to ensure passwords are strong, staff shouldn’t use their name, birthday, street address and other personal information.
• Regularly remind staff of how to deal with sensitive data, for example, to only store it in trusted cloud services that need to be authenticated for access and that it should not be shared with untrusted third parties.
• Enforce the use of legitimate software, downloaded from official sources.
• Make backups of essential data and regularly update IT equipment and applications to avoid unpatched vulnerabilities that could cause a breach.
• Configure Wi-Fi encryption. It is imperative to configure your network connection correctly and set your router’s log-in and password regularly.
• Use a VPN if connecting to Wi-Fi networks that don’t belong to you. When you’re connected through a VPN, all of your data will be encrypted regardless of the network settings, and outsiders will not be able to read it.
• Use corporate services for e-mail, messaging, and all other work. Stick to corporate resources when exchanging documents and other information. Those cloud drives, but configured for business, are generally far more reliable than the free user versions. 
• Protect devices with an antivirus solution. It is vital that you install a reliable security solution on all devices that handle corporate data.