Acquiring the best security for your organisation's information resources is no longer a question but rather an obligation. While cybersecurity has improved significantly, so have the threats. In years past, the media has portrayed cybercrime as something done by a group of IT-literate kids in their parents' basement but that is no longer the case. Cybercrime is now effectively a multi-million-dollar organised crime syndicate with the goal of infiltrating your system and stealing your precious intellectual assets.

Vishak Raman, Vice President of Sales for India SAARC and SEA at Fortinet, recently stated at a media briefing held in KL in conjunction with Accelerate Asia 2022 (Malaysia) that the cyber threat landscape has evolved and that the rapid pace of digitalisation is actually increasing the surface area for cyber attacks. He further added that Fortinet has also evolved from just a firewall security company to a wider and specialised portfolio as clients are demanding a centralised control for all types of cyber security.

As businesses digitalise, it is impossible to predict what the future holds for cybersecurity. Despite this, as Peerapong Jongvibool, Vice President of Fortinet South East Asia and Hong Kong, elaborated during the media briefing, Fortinet is taking a holistic approach to cybersecurity, which means that even if businesses are progressively become more accessible due to digitalisation, cybersecurity solutions should be able to integrate with any security aspects regardless of the company in order to provide the best protection for the clients. As a result, cybersecurity will be more scalable in the long run. Jongvibool went on to say that implementing a human firewall is critical since people are often the most vulnerable component of an organisation.

Moving on to the human aspect of cybersecurity, "Our Southeast Asia and Hong Kong survey as part of a global report shows that 71% of participating companies are facing difficulty in hiring technology-qualified talents for cybersecurity, with 63% agreeing that this skill shortage results in severe cybersecurity consequences for the business," says Rashish Pandey, Vice President of Marketing and Communications Asia at Fortinet. Hiring a technologically capable cybersecurity team is difficult; retaining one is even arduous. As a result, Malaysia will face a skills deficit, which could have disastrous cybersecurity ramifications for the economic sector. Therefore, Fortinet’s Training Advancement Agenda (TAA) and Training Institute initiatives were established to increase access and reach of its cybersecurity certifications and training that are regarded essential by recruiting organisations, as revealed in the survey.

Today, security operation analysts, cloud security specialists, and network architects are among the most sought-after cybersecurity-related skills in the industry. Essentially, according to Pandey, the product of the educational system and what the industry demands are not in sync, resulting in the previously mentioned skill gap. According to Fortinet’s skills gap report, training and certifications are crucial approaches for organisations to remove human anomalies from cybersecurity while also addressing the skills gap dilemma.
 
As we enter a new digital era in which working from home or having unlimited connectivity becomes the norm, malicious threats have greater opportunities to infiltrate and steal our intellectual property. Fortinet, for example, may have a technological advantage in mitigating and remediating incoming security breaches and attacks. However, more often than not, any compromised system can be traced back to human carelessness. In a nutshell, cyber awareness training should be made mandatory for all parties involved to ensure a safe and secure environment for the company's intellectual property.