Why SMEs should step up in cyber security

IN today's global, digital world, connectivity and data rule and everyone is somewhat connected, whether they know it or not. Safeguarding intellectual property, customer data, financial information, and ultimately your company's reputation, is a crucial part of business strategy. With the number of threats and the sophistication of attacks increasing, the issue of managing cyber risk is an especially formidable challenge for our local small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Today, cyber risk management is clearly not a top priority for many SMEs, where their other immediate issues such as managing cash flow, increasing top-line revenue and addressing manpower shortage, etc, take precedence. SMEs typically do not invest much in state-of-the-art technology, let alone in cyber security.

It is a fallacy to think that SMEs are facing less cyber risk than larger enterprises. Many SMEs are in a state of denial that they will not be targeted for cyber attacks as they think they do not collect and store customer information in their back-end systems. On the contrary, if SMEs are not prepared for cyber attacks, they are in fact exposing themselves to a greater impact of losing their reputation and trust with their clients, and eventually even their business, when cyber incidents happen.