To survive and thrive in the digital economy, SMEs need comprehensive cybersecurity that is fast to deploy and easy to manage.

More businesses in Singapore are embracing digital technology, and that has brought along several risks; cyberthreats are on an upsurge and are at the top of the list.

The threat landscape today has evolved as quickly as – if not faster than – digital business transformation. Four key challenges have reared their heads in the digital economy:

• Complexity of technology – this makes it difficult, especially for SMEs to keep up with technological developments and deployment
  
• Sophistication of threats – cybercriminals use multiple ways to get into your network and steal crucial information like payment records, corporate assets, and sensitive client and employee data
  
• Obsolescence of traditional security – the old ways of protecting networks, data, devices and users cannot keep up with the sophistication of cybercrime today
  
• Growth of threat surface – the proliferation of wireless technologies and devices has increased the number and types of endpoints accessing business applications and data, and every endpoint is a potential cyberthreat target

Every business can be a victim. According to a 2019 Chubb survey, 65% of the surveyed SMEs had a cyber incident within the last year. That is after almost half of the organizations assumed none would occur.

These incidents included ransomware and data loss. System malfunctions accounted for 22% and data loss from careless employees and stolen company devices accounted for 20%. In addition, up to 40% of the data breaches involved customer records.

In today’s highly interconnected value chain, being the weakest link in that chain could easily lead to a breach in your business partners’ networks. That would translate into huge losses – both tangible and intangible.

A data breach in your company, or a cybersecurity weakness on your part leading to a breach in a partner’s system, can grind business to a halt overnight. A cyber-attack, and the time and resources needed to recover, would cause business downtime. Cancellation or reduction of business contracts, leakage of sensitive customer or business information, and the consequential loss of reputation and customer confidence can also be very costly.

In today’s digital economy, you want to protect your network against multiple cyberthreats, while simplifying management and saving costs in the long run. Unlike the traditional way brick-and-mortar businesses were run, to survive – and ultimately thrive – in the digital economy, SMEs need to:

You need a solution that can be adapted to your specific business needs. You must be equipped to:

• Stop cyber-attacks before they enter your network
• Fully manage the network from a single platform
• Optimize flows based on application priority
• Secure wireless networks
• Protect all devices, including BYOD
• Defend against attacks targeting VoIP, email and critical applications
• Protect your network from infected material transferred from websites

As part of Singtel’s suite of cybersecurity solutions for SMEs, the Singtel Unified Threat Management (UTM) solution comes in four packages to meet the specific needs of your business.

2. Deploy defenses quickly

Business cannot wait, and neither can cyber-defense.

You want your employees, business partners and customers to have peace of mind when working or dealing with your company. To do that, you need to ensure that your network and users are protected from potential threats, and mitigate against possible exploits that threaten your business reputation. You want to inspire trust from partners and customers, while, maximizing your business output by minimizing downtime.

So, deployment of a comprehensive cybersecurity solution has to be both fast and effective.

With the industry-leading Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) at the core of the UTM solution, you can consolidate multiple security and networking functions with one unified appliance to protect your businesses and simplify your infrastructure.

Simplified security and networking capabilities in one box reduces the risk of cyberthreats, enables cloud access, and frees resources, quickly enabling you to focus on what matters most — revenue growth and profitability.

3. Start at a low cost

With the UTM solution available from Singtel’s suite of cybersecurity solutions for SMEs, you can select from the four packages one that will meet your needs, while allowing to scale for growth. This allows you to start simple in your quest to protect your network against multiple cyberthreats, while simplifying management and saving costs in the long run.

What’s more, Singapore SMEs can leverage the available Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG) to quickly and cost-effectively deploy the Singtel UTM solution.

With up to 70% funding support, PSG serves as an avenue for companies to make long-term technology investments, including cybersecurity – a very real need in the digital business world.

In support of the Singapore government’s PSG initiative, Singtel’s suite of cybersecurity solutions for SMEs offers these UTM packages catered to SMEs. Eligible companies are able to apply for the PSG via the Business Grants Portal (BGP).