Could Moving Back to Hardware Actually Be The Leap Forward for Cybersecurity in Southeast Asia?
Let’s take a step away from the AI ‘craze’ and look at quantum computing and cryptography for a moment. Cybersecurity is an ever-evolving practice naturally because cybercrime works the same way. If there is valuable data to be protected digitally, there will be cybercriminals looking to breach that data. Data is the ‘new gold’, constantly increasing in value each year – meaning the motivation of bad actors to find new methods of obtaining it will increase steadily too. This means that companies who stay complacent in their cybersecurity measures will be singled out from the ‘herd’ and become prey to evolving cyber attackers.
What can companies do about this?
Utimaco suggests that as the world increasingly relies on software, companies should reconsider whether hardware might offer a viable solution or alternative. Specifically, in the realm of data encryption, Utimaco highlights the numerous advancements made with Hardware Security Modules (HSMs).
On 7th March, I attended Utimaco’s media briefing with its local partner ‘Secure Metric’ to hear more about how they constantly strive to provide successful HSMs for encryption and decryption computation for even the most vulnerable types of data such as ‘data-in-motion’. Utimaco calls for businesses in banking and finance to learn and further understand HSMs and what they offer that’s different from software security solutions.
First and foremost, HSMs conduct their encryption and decryption of user’s data in an external environment from the users’ database and systems. This ensures that a breach of the users’ systems may not compromise their data, whereas encryption from software within the same environment is more likely to be compromised. Secondly, today’s HSM devices, while as small as a DVD player, are capable of Post-Quantum Cryptography, which, according to Eddie Yong, Country Manager of ASEAN, Utimaco GmbH, have never been hacked!
At the event, I asked Eddie Yong, Robin Kong (Regional Marketing Head – APJ, Utimaco) and Edward Law (CEO of SecureMetric Sdn Bhd) what the main reasons for hesitation to adopt HSM or cybersecurity measures in general are. They had two main points to share:
- Companies often hesitate to abruptly change their security measures, especially to something newer, due to concerns about the limited proven track records.
- Companies are deterred by a solution if they are not properly educated about it – so it makes sense that Utimaco aims to spread awareness of their solutions in Malaysia.
It might be worth considering if these two reasons for hesitations towards adopting the latest cybersecurity innovations are prevalent in Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries. It’s true that as of December last year, cybersecurity company Surfshark had rated Malaysia as the 8th most breached country in the world.
In summary, the emphasis on companies maintaining and updating their cybersecurity is crucial to staying one step ahead of cyber attackers. According to Utimaco, the company itself is dedicated to setting a prime example by actively evolving cybersecurity and reinvesting a significant portion of its profits into research and development.
While HSM technology itself isn’t exactly new, in today’s challenging landscape, it merits attention for the advancements it has undergone. It presents a valuable alternative or complement to prevalent software-centric cybersecurity solutions.
