MALAYSIA experienced billions of cyberattacks last year and this is a great challenge to companies.
Cybersecurity solutions provider Fortinet said its FortiGuard Labs detected attacks involving viruses, botnets and exploits.
The company said it had detected a virus count of 61.1 million, botnet count of 50.2 million and 7.5 billion exploits.
Fortinet Southeast Asia and Hong Kong vice-president Peerapong Jongvibool said as organisations looked into different technologies to address these issues, they introduced another form of complexity that was slowing digital initiatives.
"The new form of complexity exists as we have different operating systems, reports and control panels.
"Based on my observation, enterprises and organisations have multiple vendors that they need to maintain, and they rarely think of the complexity that comes with it.
"They opt only for the best technology to combat said issues."
He added that cybersecurity challenges included those where applications were distributed, users worked from anywhere, more devices were attached to applications, too many IT and security stacks, as well as a shortage of vendors and cybersecurity solutions.
WHAT CAN BE DONE
Peerapong said the increased connectivity and work-from-anywhere trend had increased digital attacks.
He said people could use zero trust, firewalls and the cloud for protection.
However, as there were more applications running, proper technology should be adopted to protect them as well, he added.
"People need to rely on technology such as artificial intelligence to detect problems in the infrastructure to remedy the problems promptly.
"I've been asking people whether they have installed mobile phone security software apps and the answer is likely 'no'.
"We need to enhance the level of protection to make sure people are safe when connected to the Internet,"
Peerapong said data breaches happened in companies that did not adopt sufficient cybersecurity solutions, and also a lack of cybersecurity awareness.
He urged companies to design their network environment with parameters to contain and protect data, as well enforced cybersecurity policies.
"Hackers are smart. If they know that you are protecting something, they will try another way to infiltrate your system.
"So organisations need to be aware of their circumstances, such as if their software has been patched or how many vulnerabilities exist in their environment. You have to make sure you are not vulnerable,"
