Kuala Lumpur (16 March 2015) – F-Secure, a leading online security and privacy company with a strong presence in Malaysia, is extending its reach to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) throughout the country by signing a partnership agreement with leading IT distributor Jardine OneSolution (JOS).
Paul Palmer, F-Secure Vice President, APAC, and JOS General Manager (Distribution Division) Chuah Kee Heng inked the agreement this afternoon.
F-Secure began operating in Malaysia in early 2006, and gained MSC status in its first three months. The company has spread its wings even further since then, and today has its own F-Secure Tower in Bangsar South. The facility plays host to lab, customer support, and R&D operations being conducted outside of F-Secure’s Finland headquarters.
“We’re committed to the region, and this year we’ve decided to increase our focus and put more resources in Malaysia,” said Palmer.
The new partnership agreement with JOS allows F-Secure to focus on delivering its cloud-based security solutions to small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs).
According to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the Asia Pacific region is at the cutting edge of information security advances. However, PwC also notes that the region is lagging in the detection of security incidents and investing in information security budgets.
A B2B International survey conducted last year found that viruses, worms, trojans, and other types of malware were problems for 61% of respondents. The average cost of a single data security incident was $720,000 for a large company, and in the Asia Pacific region, financial losses due to security incidents increased by 22% from 2013.
A threat report published by F-Secure last year concluded that Malaysian businesses, especially SMEs, were vulnerable to increasingly larger numbers of botnet-related viruses. This leaves these organizations vulnerable to take-overs by botnets, which can result in businesses sending massive amounts of spam or even contributing to distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
“In Malaysia, spending on security products by SMEs is expected to hit US$86.7 million this year, and grow to US$130 million by 2017,” said Palmer. “It’s not a small sum, and this certainly shows that businesses here are mature enough to know that they need to stay safe from unseen threats. We intend to assist them as best we can”.
Palmer added that focusing on corporate cloud-based security solutions would be best for SMEs, and F-Secure’s partnership with JOS is a vital step towards that end. “SMEs are the future of business, and a vital part of Malaysia’s business ecosystem. We fully intend to keep them as safe as possible,” said Palmer. “Thanks to our Protection Service for Business (PSB), which will soon incorporate integrated mobile security and Freedome for Business, we can offer them exactly what they need.”
F-Secure has won AV-TEST’s Best Protection award four years in a row, and is fully equipped to be the shield that protects Malaysian SMEs.
For more information, visit F-Secure’s global website.
