Malaysia releases information security guidelines for SMEs

The Cybersecurity Malaysia, an agency under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, has recently released a set of information security guidelines for SMEs in order to promote awareness and understanding on issues surrounding information security.

According to the published guidelines, while most corporate organisations are considered “mature” in managing information security, SMEs on the other hand are lagging behind.

“SMEs might be fully aware on how they are protecting their physical assets but the conscious state in the sense of protecting the information as an asset is still low,” it says.

Traditionally, protecting physical assets would be much easier as it requires tangible items to keep them secure.

However, in today’s innovation-led environment, digital information, which comes in the form of Intellectual Property, copyrights, trade secrets, business strategies, and other related information, are now considered as intangible assets, and are vulnerable to risks if left unprotected.

With the Information Security guidelines now published, the SMEs will have a grasp of basic principles of implementing information security, and learn from best practices suggested in the document.

The guidelines outlined five pillars of Information security that SMEs should practice and adapt in their organisation in order to protect their digital assets. These five pillars are: Asset Protection, Incident Detection, Incident Response, Documentation, and Response.

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