Secure Tangent offers security services

"Our consultants are also highly trained and we always benchmark ourselves against international standards, while being sensitive to the local working environment," - Beh Swan Swan

Wednesday, 19 September 2001 - Despite being a new company, Secure Tangent Sdn Bhd hopes to increase the urgency of network protection in the local market where most companies only think of such issues when it's too late.

The company has just started operations in June this year, focusing on security services. A subsidiary of Magnum Information Technology Sdn Bhd, it is 60 percent owned by Magnum 4D Berhad, and 40 percent by Magnum Corporation Berhad.

SECURITY OPPORTUNITIES
Although International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates the opportunities for packaged, security software in Malaysia to reach US$47 million (RM178 million) in the year 2004, the security services market is just starting out. "Most security services companies are product-based, and the market perception for security is also as such," says IDC's research manager, Linus Lai.

He explains that many companies measure security by each product that they have installed, such as firewalls and anti-virus. "But this is slowly changing, and many have realised that products alone are not sufficient, but security also includes policies, software and hardware. And this is where the security consultancy opportunities are," Lai adds.

He points out that as of early this year, there are nine companies offering security consultancy services without attachment to specific product brands, including the four big consulting firms. "The count should have increased by now," he adds.

Lai says that local security consulting firms offer specialized services such as ethical hacking, evaluation and auditing, and security policies.

He adds that one of the reason companies opt for security consultancy is because they realise the lack skills in security management. Most Malaysian companies are still not ready to outsource their security functions, thus choosing security consultancy as the best way in their situations.

NOT NEW EXPERIENCE
Secure Tangent's chief executive officer Beh Swan Swan, though acknowledging that the company is newly formed, says that their experiences in the area is not new. She says that the company has many years of experiences in providing security to the group of companies under Magnum Corporation. "Our consultants are also highly trained and we always benchmark ourselves against international standards, while being sensitive to the local working environment," she states, claiming that the company's chief technology officer is one of the few people that have received certification as security professionals locally.

She also cities the advantage of coming under a large organization under Magnum Corporation that has diversified into many other areas, including gaming, leisure, and printing. "Financial strength is important to us as it supports and enables us to undertake project of various sizes," she comments.

Beh says that some companies that are aware of the importance of network protection are concern of how much they should spend on security of the company. "We will recommend them to go through this methodically and objectively," says Beh.

She adds that the companies will need to answer questions such as how much value their data. If there is a down time or if their data has been tampered with, what does it cost the company? Will it result in loss of these businesses?

"Once they are able to analyze and understand the value of their data, they can then decide how much they should budget and plan for their security implementations," says Beh.

ASSESSMENT STAGES
Typically, the security consulting cycle will involve assessment of the company's strategy, physical and non-physical data, security infrastructure design, implementation, monitoring and network penetration test.

Secure Tangent will also help the company to set up a response centre that will allow it to deal with a security breach methodologically. The whole cycle will take from four to six weeks.

Secure Tangent hopes to capture this market by providing advices that are not tied down to products and brands.

The company, says Beh, provides an objective assessment of a corporation's need and recommends the most appropriate solutions in the market from companies such as Cisco Systems, and Intel.

Beh points out this is increasingly crucial with the rapid adoption of new technologies and Internet in the market. As it is, corporate networks are becoming more vulnerable to attacks from internal and external sources.

Although most attacks that happened locally have not been highly damaging, she cautions local companies to not be complacent as their networks could be used as a launch pad to other sites.

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