Data Protection For SMEs: From Cost-Centre To Business Enabler

Data privacy and protection concerns have been issues in Malaysia for quite some time, especially with incidences such as the online leakage of 46.2 million Malaysian’s personal data in 2017 to the records of more than a million UITM students leaked online earlier in January this year. These incidents remind us to be even more vigilant than ever in protecting data, whether it is of our organisations, our customers, or even our own.

However, even though they are now more cognisant of their vulnerability, many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) still find themselves hesitant to invest, worrying about the cost in time and resources. When it comes to IT security, SMEs are in a tight spot.

Potential attacks on SMEs are on the rise, as they do not have the wherewithal to pro-actively combat the unknown. Whenever a data breach or a cyberattack happens, there is often a lot of legwork being put into examining the root cause of data breaches. For SMEs, they simply do not have the time, budget, or expertise to threat hunt, nor do they always understand why they need to do it. Even if SMEs see the value, their budgets do not come close to having a dedicated in-house team.

The good news is that SMEs now have more options that will bolster their ability to defend themselves from the evolving threat landscape. They no longer have to think of data protection and cybersecurity as massive cost centres they begrudgingly invest in for purposes of legal compliance, seeing them instead as business enablers that ensure smooth and optimal operations, facilitate organisational savings, and guard profit-centres. They can start with a set of easy to implement protocols and IT solutions – what is important is getting every member of their organisation to embrace a focus on cybersecurity as an integral part of their day-to-day work life.

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