How Should MSMEs gear up against Cyber Attacks?

Can you explain the key cybersecurity challenges faced by MSMEs in today’s digital landscape?

In recent times, every order of any organisation is processed through Internet which carries critical data of payment details, personal data, and addresses. A breach could lead to significant financial losses, legal liabilities, and damage to reputation. Due to high volume of data and access by multiple people at different locations, cloud-based storages were on demand for the environment.  With is critical data handling and ease of usage companies prefer secured data with seamless access thereby preventing the hacking of the system. A secured network with good protection on access levels of user is the need of the hour.  

How important is it for MSMEs to have a comprehensive cybersecurity plan in place; and what should it include?

Majority of our customers who were in E-Commerce business have a great threat in protecting their Data as most of them were cloud-based applications and need to share sensitive information through internet. Until unless every node and end point is protected there may be a threat on losing the data. We see few incidents happened in past in India where the customer’s sensitive information sold in Dark-web which is a big threat for the organisation as well as their customers. If there is a good security control in place with best practices followed by MSME’s we can avoid these threats and protect the business.

Which market segments AIT supports and what value addition AIT does on Managed Internet services for its customers?

AIT focus on Startup E-commerce companies where scaling up is a challenge to manage. We provide Managed Internet Services with Firewall and Security Devices in Opex Model there by growing along with the customer. With this setup, we have grown in the market segment of Health and Fitness, Logistics and Distribution, E-Commerce Online ordering stores of various products like Food, Grocery, Meat, Banking, Petroleum Distributions and other segments.

How do you ensure that internet traffic flow is secure and controlled effectively?

By implementing Zero Touch SDWAN Devices like CISCO Meraki/Fortinet at the customer’s location, our Network Engineer will control the Usage by User, Applications, Number of Users, Bandwidth Utilisation etc. The same can be configured by setting up an SLA for each parameter and route the Internet traffic through different sources. AIT also provides Cloud security, whereby all the requests from a user is checked by security tool and allow only genuine traffic.

The Firewall deployed in the network will take care of Malware and other suspicious Threats by blocking proactively at the first step using IDS and IPS. Further on any unknown threat is quarantined and sent to Sandboxing, where packets are thoroughly checked and returned. We provide multilevel access grant to different users as per the requirement.

What kind of training and resources do you provide to your clients to help them understand and improve their cybersecurity posture?

We provide periodic training to our NOC Engineers and get them certified by the OEM which helps the organisation to increase on the knowledge level. We also conduct perioding training and suggestions to our clients there by increasing the awareness and making them to implement a secured network.

What advice would you give to MSMEs wanting to enhance their cybersecurity measures without significant financial investment?

We strongly recommend MSMEs to keep their data protected with proper security in place and follow best practices there by training their employees, vendors and customers. Being said that they should also invest in implementing security hardwares and consulting with Cybersecurity Experts to analyse their networks and infrastructures periodically.  With our Opex operation model, our clients need not spend on heavy investment in the capex of hardware, licence and capital investments. With our model clients need to pay on a monthly subscription for the branches that are live.

As cyber threats continue to evolve, the need for robust and adaptive security measures becomes increasingly critical. AIT Internet Services demonstrates that with the right technology and expertise, even the most complex cybersecurity challenges can be managed effectively. Their commitment to providing comprehensive security solutions tailored to the unique needs of MSMEs sets them apart in the industry. By empowering businesses with the tools and knowledge to protect their digital assets, AIT is not just a service provider but a vital partner in the journey toward a secure digital future. For MSMEs looking to strengthen their cyber defenses, AIT offers the expertise and innovation needed to stay one step ahead of cyber threats.

-- Swaminathan B is a guest columnist with DQ Channels

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