In a recent push towards enhancing cyber security for SMEs, Magda Chelly, the founder of WoSEC Singapore and a recognized name in the cyber security domain, is set to change the narrative. The Chubb SME Cyber Preparedness Survey showed that Singapore SMEs are not prepared for cyber-attacks including most of the small and medium enterprises across Asia Pacific.
The survey conducted by Chubb of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore has revealed a significant perception gap between cyber risk and how prepared they are to deal with it.
Nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) of respondents believe they are less exposed to cyber incidents than multinationals.
56 per cent of SMEs have experienced a cyber-attack the past year.
Magda Chelly (a doctor in telecommunication engineering) WoSEC Singapore founder and serial entrepreneur believes that cyber security is also a social responsibility.
“Everyone should understand the fundamentals of cyber security. With the digitalisation, our crown-jewels – personal and professional – are on the Internet. We are changing our daily routines, and we are unable to live anymore without technology being involved in almost all our activities,” said Chelly.
She insists that the region’s cyber resilience can only be achieved when the overall ecosystem addresses cyber security and improve its maturity and readiness.
66 per cent of SMEs are not aware of all the cyberthreats they are exposed to while 32 per cent of SMEs do not know the impact of a cyber-attack.
Singapore-based Responsible Cyber, a cyber security firm that provides advisory and training in Asia Pacific announced that it started building a new platform for SMEs, providing them guided services to ensure their cyber resilience and readiness.
Chelly has been working with multiple international and local companies, from start-ups to SMEs and multinationals.
According to her, it is very challenging for a business owner to understand where to start implementing any cyber security control.
The current landscape with thousands of products and technical reviews do not offer the right opportunity for the companies to understand where they should start and how to continue their journey.
Responsible Cyber is building an automate platform to boost its product offering and strengthen the ecosystem’s cyber maturity, considering the limited budgets of start-ups and SMEs in the region and the lack of cyber awareness.
It is planning on incorporating artificial intelligence by analysing SMEs cyber-related data and ecosystem, anticipating cyber problems and learning to adapt to a variety of cyber risks for the business with automated deployment of required controls, around people, process and technology.
The aim is to “disrupt SME cyber readiness and resilience in Asia Pacific”.
The start-up is serving a new generation of security as a service product, enabling guided and automated deployment of all cyber security fundamentals.
The startup’s flagship product Security As A Service, targeted at small and medium businesses across the region, can be launched online in just few clicks.
It starts with a free tier and comes with cyber maturity assessment, digital footprint, cyber awareness and much more.
The platform allows the businesses to ensure that with their growth, cyber security enables their business expansion, and readiness with a reliable cash flow management and no unexpected expenses.
Responsible Cyber’s goal is to provide business owners with fast and simple access to the best cyber security strategy, roadmap and products as they grow, with a one-stop shop approach.
“We are extremely excited about the problem we are solving for this fast-growing industry in Asia Pacific, in particular for Singapore, where more than 90 per cent of the businesses are Small and Medium Enterprises.
Business owners do not need anymore to search for the best cyber security products by themselves, or to hire expensive consultancy services if they need to start they cyber journey.” said Magda Chelly, Founder and Managing Director.
“Business owners will have an affordable and efficient all-in-one cyber security platform from cyber risks evaluation to incident management and website security.
We have seen amazing growth since we founded the company in June 2016 with our continuous training offerings. With a great founding team including Mikko Laaksonen and Daniel Lim, we expect to open more than 50,000 business accounts by 2021.”
Read also:
Singapore is facing a skills shortage in Cyber Security: Dr Magda Chelly
Major cyberattack inevitable, Cyber Security chief warned in 2015 – Singapore News